LOST at Sea

For the second time in three years, President Bush has asked the Senate to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (widely known as LOST, or Law of the Sea Treaty). The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has taken it up. This is not the first time LOST has come up, of course. International negotiators drafted it in 1982 in an attempt to establish a comprehensive legal regime for international management of the seas and their resources. President Ronald Reagan, however, refused to sign LOST because he realized that the treaty doesn’t serve U.S. interests. In 1994, however, President Clinton signed a revised version of the treaty and forwarded it to the Senate. The record shows that the Senate was not convinced that the 1994 changes corrected the problems, and it has deferred action on the treaty ever since. Despite the current administration support, the treaty remains a bad deal for the United States. MORE at Fox News... RELATED: The Law of the Sea treaty — LOST to opponents — "erodes American sovereignty more thoroughly than any other treaty ever conceived," said Peter Leitner, senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies and author of a book critical of the treaty. The far-reaching U.N. accord, covering legal, economic, environmental and security rules for the world's oceans, has been adopted by 155 countries, but has languished in the Senate since President Clinton submitted it 13 years ago. MORE at The Washington Times... Overview - Convention & Related Agreements: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982... MORE at the United Nations web site... The Law of the Sea Treaty - The Bush Administration has expressed support for ratification of the Treaty. However, many of former President Reagan's original objections still hold true. MORE at Heritage Foundation...