Year: 1981
Type: article
Abstract: On March 2, 1981, as diplomatic delegations were beginning to assemble in New York, the Reagan Administration provoked consternation in the corridors of the United Nations with a startling policy announcement.The United States, it was revealed, would not be prepared to agree to the conclusion of a Convention on the Law of the Sea at what many had hoped would be the tenth and final session of a Conference that has been going on for the last seven years.The announcement was based on a preliminary United States reconsideration of the text, which had led to the conclusion that there were enough serious grounds for concern to warrant a more extensive review over a period of months, once the new subcabinet officials directly involved had been in office long enough to get their teeth into the issues.The principal area of concern was proposed arrangements for a new international authority to govern deep seabed mining.The announcement itself was drafted hastily by an interagency group in the office of newly confirmed Deputy Secretary of State William P. Clark.Only five days later, on March 7, the Administration abruptly dismissed Ambassador George H. Aldrich as Acting Special Representative of the President for the Law of the Sea Conference.Aldrich, who served superbly as my deputy for three years, had succeeded me as "Acting" United States Representative and had expected to be asked to stay on for the Tenth Session.With Aldrich went two other senior career officers who had been with me throughout my tenure as chief negotiator.When United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim convened the first plenary meeting of the Tenth Session on March 9, I was not particularly surprised to hear reports of general dismay and uncertainty among the delegates of other participating countries.Did the announcements mean that the new administration had already virtually decided that the "package deal" that it inherited was not satisfactory?Or was the review to be genuinely objective, with neither adverse nor favorable prejudgments on the product of negotiations to date?The Senior resident partner of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, Washington, D.C. Ambassador Richardson headed the United States delegation to the Law of the Sea Conference from
Source: Journal of legislation
Author: Elliot L. Richardson
Institution: University of Notre Dame
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W759506758