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The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial board argues "it is the nature of today's Senate that a few narrow-thinking, ideological lawmakers can block passage of things that are so critical to the country as a whole. The ratification of the Law of the Sea should not continue to be one of these."
[ More ]The military wants it. Business wants it. But to get it, they have to get past conservatives who simply don't trust the United Nations -- or, more specifically, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The treaty has spooked them ever since 1982, when it opened for signature, even though it has been widely supported by their more moderate Republican brethren. Whatever specific qualms its opponents raise, the treaty's real problem is that in the last 30 years, compulsive U.N. skepticism has moved from the fringes of the GOP into its mainstream.
[ More ]The author argues that the U.S. should ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in order to deal with "Somali pirates, polar bears and the Chinese government" among other challenges.
[ More ]There are few things the environmental community and the oil and gas industry agree on. But here is one: the need for the United States to join the Law of the Sea Convention, a worthy global agreement that the Senate has stubbornly refused to ratify for nearly 30 years.
[ More ]A key Senate Democratic leader said he won't push for a vote on the politically divisive Law of the Sea treaty before the presidential election in November, but will seek to line up support for ratification in the coming months.
[ More ]The authors, two Republican senators, argue that UNCLOS represents a tax and "would be the first time in history that an international organization would possess taxing authority, and it would amount to billions of American dollars being transferred out of the US Treasury."
[ More ]Senator John Kerry previews the arguments that will be made before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in favor of ratifying the Law of the Sea Convention.
[ More ]The three Republican senators explain their opposition to ratifying UNCLOS, noting that "[c]eding any authority to an international body is not only a threat to our sovereignty, it also creates another avenue for other nations to stop U.S. unilateral activity."
[ More ]The author advocates in favor of an amendment that would prevent the U.S. from providing funds for the International Seabed Authority.
[ More ]Washington is gearing up for another fight over the Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC) as the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee prepares to hold hearings in the coming weeks. But while the thirty year LOSC debate may start to sound like a broken record to some, the stakes of not ratifying the convention are the highest they have ever been for the United States.
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