The Conference on the Law of the Sea: A Report

From the viewpoint of the United States, far too much attention was given by many delegates to the political aspects of the articles and too little attention to the legal. Many of the new and the underdeveloped States adopted the position that rules established before they were able to influence their formulation should be changed as a matter of progress. They viewed some aspects of freedom of the high seas as a fiction invented by the maritime nations to rob them of their living resources off their coasts.