U.S. Leadership in the World and the Law of the Sea

Law of the Sea Clears Committee

On October 31, 2007, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee overwhelmingly approved the Law of the Sea Convention, sending it to the full Senate for ratification. The vote was 17-4, without any amendments or new conditions. Foreign Relations Committee Republican leader Dick Lugar encouraged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to schedule floor consideration as quickly as possible.

Read Senator Lugar's October 31 statement

On September 27 and October 4 2007, Senator Lugar participated in Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the Law of the Sea.

Read Senator Lugar's September 24 statement
Read Senator Lugar's October 4 statement

In April 2007, Senator Lugar and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden asked President Bush to reiterate his support for the treaty.

On May 15, 2007, Senator Lugar wrote an essay on the importance of moving quickly on the Law of the Sea Treaty.

Also on May 15, the White House released a statement from President Bush urging the Senate to act favorably on U.S. accession to the Law of the Sea Treaty during this session of Congress. The treaty also has the strong support of the U.S. Navy.

The basic tenets of the treaty have been U.S. policy since first enunciated by President Reagan in 1982. Over the next dozen years the U.S. won in negotiations on the questionable aspects of the treaty, and signed on in 1994. The details are in the President's Message transmitting the treaty to the Senate . In October 2003, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar held two comprehensive hearings on the treaty. The full transcripts of those hearings are part of the 187-page committee report .

In the 109th Congress, Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice made a strong endorsement of the Law of the Sea Treaty at her confirmation hearing on January 18, 2005. In addition, Chairman Lugar submitted questions for the record to Dr. Rice to follow-up on the Law of the Sea. In her responses, she expresses, among other points, that the Administration supports ratification and how the treaty will benefit national security, the economy, the military, the prevention of weapons of mass destruction proliferation and the Proliferation Security Initiative.

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Lugar wrote in the March 8, 2004 issue of Navy Times: “Imagine if a U.S. Naval Task Force, rushing from the Persian Gulf to a crisis on the Korean peninsula, had to take a 3,000-mile detour around Indonesia. Imagine if Iran barred all foreign tankers from the Straits of Hormuz, through which passes much of America’s foreign oil. Or think of the consequences if Russian fishing trawlers lingered off the Alaskan coast and plundered millions of tons of salmon swimming home to American waters.

“The good news is there is a treaty, the Convention on the Law of the Sea, that can provide the United States with legal protections against such events. This wide-ranging treaty, ratified by 143 countries, has been called by the former Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral James Watkins, ‘the foundation of public order of the oceans.’ It can help ensure that our Navy ships and submarines can navigate freely to defend America’s national security, that our cargo vessels and tankers have access to all the world’s sea lanes, and that we can control the vast riches up to 200 miles off our shores—and in some cases beyond—including the huge schools of fish in the ocean and the oil and gas that lie underneath it.

“The bad news is that the United States cannot currently rely on these protections because it isn’t a party to the treaty. Even though it was negotiated with U.S. leadership and signed nine years ago, the United States has not yet ratified it. This could put some of our hard-won guarantees at risk in the future,” Lugar wrote.

The treaty has broad and strong support including the Bush Administration, the U.S. Navy, environmentalists, international oil and shipping industries, the fishing industry as well as ocean conservationists, and international law enforcement and antiterrorism organizations.

“Our hearings revealed broad support for U.S. accession to the Law of the Sea Convention. They also revealed the need for U.S. accession to be completed swiftly. The Convention comes open for amendment for the first time later this year. If the United States is not party to the Convention at that time, our ability to protect Convention rights that we fought hard to achieve will be significantly diminished. In addition, the Convention’s Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will soon be making decisions on claims to continental shelf areas that could impact the United States’ own claims. Full U.S. participation in this process requires us to be party to the Convention,” said Lugar.

“Representatives from the Departments of State, Defense, and the U.S. Coast Guard expressed the Administration’s strong support for U.S. ratification of the Convention. They testified that the Convention advances U.S. national security by providing enhanced protections for the rights of navigation and overflight across the world’s oceans that our military relies on to protect U.S. interests abroad. They also noted that the Convention advances U.S. economic interests by enshrining the right of the United States to explore and exploit the living and non-living resources of the oceans out to 200 miles from our shore, as well as the resources of our continental shelf beyond 200 miles. In addition, they observed that the Convention advances U.S. interests in the protection of the environment by addressing pollution of the marine environment from a variety of sources and providing a framework for the conclusion of further agreements to protect and conserve the marine environment. Importantly, the Administration noted that the U.S. law and practice with respect to regulation of activities off our shores is already generally compatible with the Convention. Thus, acceding to the Convention should not require the United States to make any changes in this regard,” Lugar said.

“The Committee also heard from a distinguished panel of experts on oceans law and policy, and from industry representatives and other groups interested in the uses of the oceans. Our panel of oceans experts emphasized the importance of U.S. membership in the Convention to our ability to exercise leadership over global oceans policy. They noted that if we remained outside the treaty, we would forfeit our seat at the table of institutions that will make decisions about the use of the oceans, and we would increase the chance that such decisions would be contrary to our interests,” Lugar said.

“The U.S. Commission on Oceans Policy adopted a unanimous resolution supporting U.S. accession to the Law of the Sea Convention as its first policy pronouncement upon taking up its work. Representatives of the energy, commercial shipping, and fishing industries expressed their support for the Convention and the protection and legal certainty it provides for rights on which their businesses depend. Representatives of the environmental community also expressed their strong support for the Convention and the comprehensive framework it provides for the development of measures to protect the marine environment,” Lugar said.

“The Committee staff has worked closely with the Administration on a resolution of advice and consent. I am grateful to Senator Biden and his staff, as well as to the Administration team – which included representatives from the Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Coast Guard – for their constructive work on this resolution. In addition, Senator Stevens testified before our Committee on behalf of the Convention and helped us refine aspects of the resolution dealing with fishing. I also want to recognize the commitment and leadership of a former Chairman of this Committee, Senator Claiborne Pell. Our current examination of the treaty benefits greatly from his contributions,” Lugar said.