MARINE SCIENTIFIC-RESEARCH AND THE NEW LAW OF THE SEA

U.S. policy is to encourage freedom of marine scientific research (MSR ). This article compares the legal regimes governing the conduct of MS R under the 1958 Geneva Conventions on the Law of the Sea and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which is approaching universal a cceptance, and distinguishes MSR from survey activities. It argues tha t, notwithstanding the erosion of the physical areas of the ocean in w hich there is freedom of MSR under the Law of the Sea Convention it pr ovides mechanisms for states' parties to obtain compliance by coastal slates with their duties to grant consent, in normal circumstances, fo r MSR projects in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) or on the continen tal shelf and to establish rules and procedures ensuring that such con sent will not be delayed or denied unreasonably. It also suggests esta blishment of a national marine scientific research program analogous t o the U.S. Freedom of Navigation Program.