Abstract :
Two opposing trends in the development of an international regime for ocean mining are now evident. The UN Conference on the Law of the Sea created a Preparatory Commission which was assigned the task of developing rules and regulations for ocean mining. On the other hand, the US and seven other States are trying to establish a separate international ocean mining regime. Recently, they adopted the "Provisional Understanding Regarding Deep-Sea Matters" (PU), which was criticized by many members of the Preparatory Commission as an attempt to circumvent the LOS Convention. The USSR and other socialist States took, in political terms, a strongly negative stand toward the PU. Now that the process of resolving overlapping claims for mine sites among the LOS Convention signatories is in progress, it becomes evident that should the overlaps be resolved, this will inevitably single out the US and the USSR for legal and political confrontation over their respective claims in the Pacific. Pressure from the US ocean mining industry, which needs Government-sponsored political risk insurance, and from some strategists who point out the lack of domestic resources of strategic minerals found in manganese nodules, may compel the US Government to involve itself in a new type of political conflict.
