Conflict Resolution in the Assignment of Area Entitlements for Seabed Mining

This Article examines the conditions creating a need for, and the procedures being implemented to achieve, resolution of conflicts over deep seabed areas sought for exclusive exploration entitlements. The author argues that if and when deep seabed mining takes place, certain tangible advantages will accrue to nations or organizations that have obtained entitlements to exclusivity of activity within areas of the seabed. The author further suggests that the development of legal assurances of exclusivity and security of work within a claimed area has been proceeding along two different tracks, the 1982 Convention, and a prospectively complementary but currently separate and potentially competing entitlement system based on domestic laws, multilateral arrangements, and private agreements. The author argues that successful resolution in either track could facilitate progress in the other, and arrangements developed through efforts in the separate tracks could contribute eventually to a convergence of the two legal regulatory regimes