Not enough US Senate votes to pass Law of the Sea as lawsuit launched

THE UN's Law of the Sea Treaty will be rejected by the United States now that fresh negative Senate votes have totalled 34, denying the support needed to make it US law, reports the Washington Times.

But treaty backer Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Kerry, also chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, dismissed the head-count, saying that vote counts taken months before a proposed vote are "just a snapshot of where our politics are in this instant".

Under the rules, US treaties must be ratified by a two-thirds majority vote of the Senate before it becomes law.

Yet the US government agencies have assumed passage of the treaty, lately having the UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) rules from the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships insisting that costly low sulphur fuel be used on vessels 200 miles from Alaska shores, and enforced as US law before a Senate vote would make it legal.

This situation has prompted the State of Alaska to sue the enforcement agencies, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Coast Guard and the State Department.

The Law of the Sea Convention is the "umbrella convention" because it can only be implemented through regulations that require states to implement rules developed by "competent international organisations" like the IMO, said a UN paper posted online to explain the relationship between the Law of the Sea and IMO international pollution rules.

"In short, the [Law of the Sea] Convention is an unprecedented attempt by the international community to regulate all aspects of uses of the ocean, and thus bring a guidance for future harmonious development of the international rules and standards drafted and adopted in the Conventions of IMO," said the paper.

Critics say the UN treaty would require the US to surrender sovereignty to an international body, require US businesses to pay royalties for resource exploitation, and subject the US to costly environmental regulations as defined in the treaty.

The Law of the Sea Treaty, which came into being in 1994, has been signed and ratified by 162 countries, establishes international laws governing the maritime rights of countries.