The Common Heritage of Mankind

In one line

The deep seabed and its minerals belong to nobody and to everybody, cannot be appropriated, and must be exploited for the benefit of mankind as a whole.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: article 136 of the Convention on the Law of the Sea provides that the Area and its resources are the common heritage of mankind. The Area is defined in article 1(1)(1) as the seabed and ocean floor and subsoil thereof beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Article 137 provides that no State shall claim or exercise sovereignty or sovereign rights over any part of the Area or its resources, that all rights in the resources are vested in mankind as a whole on whose behalf the Authority shall act, and that no such claim or appropriation shall be recognised.

Where the idea came from

The problem. Manganese nodules lie on the deep ocean floor beyond every State's jurisdiction, containing nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese. By the 1960s recovering them looked possible. On the classical law of the high seas, dealt with in [The High Seas], the seabed beyond national jurisdiction was open to all, which in practice meant open to whoever had the ships and the technology.

Pardo's speech. On 1 November 1967 Arvid Pardo, the permanent representative of Malta, addressed the General Assembly and proposed that the seabed beyond national jurisdiction be declared the common heritage of mankind, reserved for peaceful purposes, and exploited for the benefit of mankind as a whole with particular regard to the needs of poor countries. That speech is the origin of the concept and of the process that produced UNCLOS III.

The Declaration of Principles. The General Assembly adopted Resolution 2749 (XXV) in 1970, declaring the seabed beyond national jurisdiction and its resources the common heritage of mankind. On the legal status of such a resolution, see [Resolutions of the General Assembly].

Then Part XI, negotiated at UNCLOS III and written into articles 133 to 191 of the 1982 Convention.

The five elements

The concept is usually broken into five, and an examiner expects them named.

Non-appropriation. Article 137(1): no State shall claim or exercise sovereignty or sovereign rights over any part of the Area or its resources, nor shall any State or natural or juridical person appropriate any part of it, and no such claim, exercise or appropriation shall be recognised. Article 137(2): all rights in the resources of the Area are vested in mankind as a whole, on whose behalf the Authority shall act, and those resources are not subject to alienation, though minerals recovered from the Area may be alienated in accordance with Part XI and the Authority's rules.