Ayn Rand Institute Press Release
Sea Treaty Drowns Property Rights
October 29, 2007
Irvine, CA--The Senate will soon decide whether to ratify the Law of
the Sea Treaty, which deems most of the earth's vast ocean floor "the
common heritage of mankind" and places it under United Nations
ownership "for the benefit of mankind as a whole.”
"This treaty vests monopoly authority over most of the world’s
seabeds in a U.N. agency that issues licenses burdened by complex
regulations, fees, royalties, and mandatory land transfers," said Thomas Bowden,
an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute. "Licensees are required to give
back half or more of the submerged land they explore, to be mined by
the International Seabed Authority using the licensees' technology and
know-how, with proceeds going to U.N. members such as Cuba, Uganda, and
Venezuela, who contribute nothing to the productive process.
"The proposed treaty ignores the fundamental principle that unowned
natural resources should become the private property of the people
whose efforts make them valuable," Bowden said. "Although the ocean
floor is full of potentially valuable minerals, they remain useless
until some pioneer discovers how to retrieve them. Under this treaty,
however, the deep-sea mining companies whose science, exploration,
technology, and entrepreneurship are being counted on to gather
otherwise inaccessible riches are treated as mere servants of a world
collective.
"This treaty is an injustice that will hamper, if not halt, the
exploitation of undersea wealth," Bowden said. "Because no
self-respecting entrepreneur will work under such conditions, the U.N.
regime will attract only the kind of lumbering state-owned enterprises
that have historically failed to match the performance of private,
profit-seeking companies."
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently held hearings on the
treaty, which has the support of the Bush administration. The treaty,
which President Reagan refused to sign in 1982, was submitted to the
Senate by President Clinton in 1994 but never ratified. The treaty
requires a two-thirds Senate majority for ratification.
"Governments have legitimate options regarding how to deal with
undersea explorers' need to establish property rights in the deep
ocean," Bowden said. "But it would be totally improper for America to
declare eternal hostility to private property in the ocean floor by
ratifying a treaty dedicated on principle to denying such rights."
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