Abstract

A supranational government of the deep oceans-an ocean regime-is unquestionably one of the most urgent needs of our times. As U.S. President Richard Nixon stated recently, "At issue is whether the oceans will be used rationally and equitably and for the benefit of mankind, or whether they will become an area of unrestrained exploitation and conflicting jurisdictional claims." The oceans that cover 70 percent of the world's surface are indispensable to life on earth, yet the forces of nationalistic militarism, burgeoning population, and rampant industrialization have already begun to threaten the stability of ocean ecology. Ocean waters and seabeds are being used for military ends. They are being polluted and degraded by the effluents of commerce and industry. Their economic resources are being plundered by myopic exploitation. Nations are engaging in a dangerous competition to claim for themselves the resources of ever- larger areas of the ocean waters and seabeds, a competition which could escalate into war. Because the oceans constitute a unified global system, their problems cannot be resolved by national actions. Only a supranational authority, regulating ocean usage and resources in the long-run interests of all mankind, can stop the dissipation of irreplaceable ocean resources and can devise and enforce those arrangements under which stable relationships can exist between human society and the oceans.