Preparing for sea-bed regime: an agreement on claims procedures.

The most significant achievement of the latest session of the Preparatory Commission for the International Sea-Bed Authority and for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which met in Geneva from 13 August to 5 September, was an agreement on procedures for the resolution of overlapping claims among those parties intending to carry out pioneering activity on the international sea-bed.

The deadlock which had carried over from the Commission's earlier session in March-April 1984 in Kingston, Jamaica was finally resolved in the last days of August, when Chairman Joseph S. Warioba (United Republic of Tanzania) reported that an agreement had been reached among applicants for registration as pioneer investor on the procedure for dealing with situations in which the geographical areas claimed by pioneer investors overlapped each other. The agreement, which included a series of cut-off dates, clears the way for the Commission to consider the applications already made by France, India, Japan and the Soviet Union. What now remains is for the Commission to adopt rules for the registration of pioneer investors. Chairman Warioba said that at the Commission's next session (Kingston, 11 March-5 April 1985), it would complete the consideration of the draft rules and adopt them.

another important issue for the 93 delegations gathered in Geneva, other than the question of overlapping claims, was a "provisional understanding on deep sea-bed matters" signed between seven Western States and Japan. Concluded on 3 August, only a few days prior to the Geneva session, the action was questioned by the Group of 77, the Eastern European socialist countries, and China. The criticism was that the provisional understanding appeared to be an effort to create a parallel regime other than that provided for by the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which adopted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Western States and Japan defended their action.

Despite the differences, however, there was a measure of pragmatic understanding among the delegations of the need to get ahead with pressing work. By the time the delegates headed home, the Commission had managed to move ahead on each of the items entrusted to it.

Besides the question of the pioneer investors regime, which is most immediate because it deals with the interim period before the Convention comes into force, the plenary of the Commission also continued the task of preparing regulations for the functioning of the International Sea-Bed Authority. It has so far finished a first reading of 82 out of 111 draft rules of procedure of the Assembly, which will be the primary organ of the Authority.

Work also progressed in the Commission's four subsidiary bodies. Special Commission 1 was engaged in the exercise of how to identify the mineral-producing developing countries likely to be affected by sea-bed mineral production, and what measures could be taken to minimize the negative consequences.

Special Commission 2 discussed the establishment of the Enterprise, which is to be the sea-bed mining arm of the Authority. Much of its work centred on the obligation of the pioneer investors and States which back them to provide the Enterprise with funds, technology and trained personnel. The Special Commission also discussed the start-up requirements for the Enterprise and briefly dealt with its operational options, such as whether the Enterprise should independently carry out mining, processing and marketing operations, or wether it should go in for joint ventures.

Special Commission 3, which has the task of preparing a sea-bed mining code for the exploration and exploitation of the international sea-bed, decided that the code should strive for a balance between the interests of the Authority to retain "effective control" of the international sea-bed area and the interests of the mining enterprises to successfully carry out their own commercial operations.

Special Commission 4 began an article-by-article reading of the draft rules of procedure for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea secretariat. It completed a first-reading of 30 out of the 134 draft rules.

Background to the Session

The United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea was adopted on 30 April 1982, after nine years of negotiation, by the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. The task of drawing up detailed rules and procedures for the sea-bed mining regime under the Authority and for the Tribunal was given to the preparatory Commission, which was established by the Final Act of the Conference, adopted together with the Convention. (For a more detailed background of the Commission and the work of its previous sessions, see the UN Chronicle, No.4, 1984.)

All States that have signed the Convention are members of the Commission. It is to function as a preparatory body till the end of the first session of the Authority's Assembly, which will be the primary organ of the Authority. The Assembly will meet one year after the sixtieth ratification of or accession to the Convention is received. So far more than 150 States have signed and 14 of them have ratified the Convention.

Pioneer Investors

The special regime for pioneer investors was created by the Conference so that countries and enterprises which were technologically capable of carrying out mining activity on the sea-bed would have reason to continue their pioneering work. By adopting Resolution II of the Final Act, the Conference established a special regime to protect the preparatory investment made by such countries and enterprises, which were to be called pioneer investors. Registration with the Commission as a pioneer investor would entitle a State or entity to explore -- but not exploit -- a selected area of the international sea-bed, and give it priority over others when applying to the Authority for commercial production at a later date.

The main disagreement during the spring session in Kingston lay in the interpretation of the provision in Resolution II which requires prospective pioneer investors to ensure that, "before making applications to the Commission . . . that areas in respect of which applications are made do not overlap one another or areas...