Trick or Treaty?

Will it be a Happy Halloween for fans of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNLCOS)? I’m guessing yes. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee appears poised to report out the treaty favorably for a full Senate vote on giving advice and consent to U.S. accession to the treaty. You can listen to or watch the SFRC hearing live here. Given the politics, I’m pretty sure Senator Biden wouldn’t have held the meeting unless he clearly had the votes to report it out favorably. Indeed, UNCLOS enjoys a lot of support, including the ranking minority member, Senator Lugar, not to mention the White House, the U.S. Navy, the oil and gas industry, environmentalists and a host of others. That’s not to say such support is universal though as there are lingering new sovereigntist objections to the treaty that may convince a few Senators (e.g., Senator Coleman) to waiver or oppose the treaty. So, the interesting thing to watch for will be the number of “no” votes UNCLOS gets in the SFRC, as that may be a preview of what will follow in the full Senate. I’d encourage comments, particularly by those with knowledge of the upcoming vote or its outcome.

UPDATE: That was fast. The SFRC voted 17 to 4 to favorably recommend the Senate give its advice and consent to accede to UNCLOS. Next up — the full Senate. I’m assuming that in addition to debates over accession itself, we might also see some debate over what understandings and declarations to append to the Senate resolution of advice and consent (the Senate will probably not come up with any reservations since UNCLOS Art. 309 prohibits reservations or exceptions not expressly permitted by other articles of UNCLOS).