United States position[edit]
Main article:
United States non-ratification of the UNCLOS
Although the United States helped shape the Convention and its subsequent revisions,
[5] and though it signed the 1994 Agreement on Implementation, it has not signed the Convention as it objected to Part XI of the Convention.
[6][7]
In 1983 President
Ronald Reagan, through
Proclamation No. 5030, claimed a 200-mile exclusive economic zone. In December 1988 President Reagan, through Proclamation No. 5928, extended U.S. territorial waters from three nautical miles to twelve nautical miles for national security purposes. However a legal opinion from the
Justice Department questioned the President's constitutional authority to extend sovereignty as Congress has the power to make laws concerning the territory belonging to the United States under the U.S. Constitution. In any event, Congress needs to make laws defining if the extended waters, including oil and mineral rights, are under State or Federal control.
[8][9]
On 16 July 2012, the U.S. Senate had 34 Republican Senators who indicated their intention to vote against ratification of the Treaty if it came to a vote. Since at least 2/3 of the 100 member Senate (at least 67 Senators) are required to ratify a treaty, consideration of the treaty was deferred again.
[10]
Some American commentators, including former Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld, have warned that
ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty might create a precedent with regard to resources of outer space
