Making Rules for Governing Global Commons

Abstract

Acentral goal of the Third United Nations Conference on the Lawof the Sea 1973-1982was to establish an international order for the use of the deep seabed beyond national jurisdiction. An overwhelming majority of countries signed the comprehensive convention, but several countries including the industrialized G7 members Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the formerWest Germany rejected the new ocean regime in 1982. This article addresses the question of why some states opposed the 1982 convention by examining their preferences for alternative decision-making rules. A policy-seeking approach is used by deriving the preferences of 149 states for different decision-making rules from three components: states preferences for policies, the working properties of different decision-making rules, and the location of the status quo. Findings showwhy the 1982 proposal failed to be supported by the main industrialized countries. Some evidence exists for the successful foundation of a multicameral rule in 1994.