Doug Bandow takes on the Law of the Sea Treaty
October 15th, 2007 by Brendan SteinhauserOur fellow blogger and friend Doug Bandow takes on the socialism-infested Law of the Sea Treaty in an article published on the Partnership for a Secure America blog.
The treaty declares all seabed resources to be the “common heritage of mankind,” hits Western mining companies and their sponsoring nations with fees and royalties, and creates a new global bureaucracy to divvy up the spoils. There are authorities, enterprises, committees, commissions, tribunals, and rules galore.
Most important, the terrible precedent remains: LOST turns over a vast amount of the earth’s wealth to a highly politicized international bureaucracy. This global regulatory system would restrict entrepreneurship.
In doing so it would do more than hinder seabed resource development. Such rules could deter the production of software, technology, and processes designed for seabed mining, as well as those with dual use capabilities. The treaty also would create a precedent for a LOST-like regime to govern other, currently unowned “resources,” ranging from the Internet to broadcast airwaves to space.
