Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 5 - Internationalising the Seabed

  • Kirsten Sellars
  • Book:
    A ‘Constitution for the Oceans'
    Published online:
    06 February 2025
    Print publication:
    13 February 2025, pp 137-163

  • Summary

    In 1967, Malta’s UN ambassador Arvid Pardo put forward a proposal to internationalise the deep seabed to preserve it for exclusively peaceful purposes and to exploit it for the benefit of all, especially the most impoverished states. This attempt to inhibit the coastal states’ expanding claims did not win unqualified support, as became apparent during the ensuing UN seabed committee discussions. Some Latin American states feared the roll-back of their existing claims, and some land-based mineral producers feared competition from seabed operations. Meanwhile, the maritime powers, while seeing the commercial and naval advantages of an internationalised seabed regime, were nonetheless determined to sideline peaceful purposes and narrow the range of resources deemed to be of common heritage. This was reflected in the ambiguities and omissions in the General Assembly’s Declaration of Principles resolution, which declined to decide the line between the continental shelf and the international seabed, or define the central concepts of ‘common heritage’ and ‘peaceful purposes’.