The United States may have more difficulty capturing terrorists, intercepting weapons of mass destruction and conducting routine military operations at sea if the U.S. Senate ratifies the Law of the Sea Treaty, according to a just-released report by The National Center for Public Policy Research.
The report, “Ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty: A Not So Innocent Passage,” was written by David A. Ridenour, Vice President of The National Center for Public Policy Research, a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation.
The Law of the Sea Treaty, formally known as the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS III, was originally adopted in 1983. Its purpose is to establish a comprehensive set of rules governing the oceans. Although the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommended U.S. accession to the treaty in March 2004, the full Senate has yet to act on this recommendation. It could do so at any time.