Research for you. Here is testimony on the LOST treaty from last year. As far as I can tell from a quick glance, nobody opposing the treaty was allowed to testify.
Read these and you will understand how this treaty is going to get railroaded through Congress.
The UN Convention
on the
Law of the Sea (T. Doc.103-39)
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
Time: 9:30 AM
Place: 216 Hart Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Lugar
Witnesses:
Panel 1
Rear Admiral John E. Crowley
Chief Counsel & Judge Advocate General
United States Coast Guard
Washington, DC
Admiral Michael G. Mullen
Vice Chief of Naval Operations
United States Navy
Washington, DC
The Honorable William H. Taft, IV
The Legal Adviser
Department of State
Washington, DC
The Honorable John F. Turner
Assistant Secretary
Bureau of Oceans and International
Environmental and Scientific Affairs
Department of State
Washington, DC
Mr. Mark T. Esper
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Negotiations Policy
Department of Defense
The Pentagon
Washington, DC
Panel 2
Mr. David G. Burney
Executive Director
U.S. Tuna Foundation
San Diego, CA
Ms. Randi Thomas
National Representative
U.S. Tuna Foundation
Washington, DC
Mr. Joseph J. Cox
President
Chamber of Shipping of America
Washington, DC
Mr. Paul L. Kelly
Senior Vice President
Rowan Companies, Inc.
Houston, TX
Vice Admiral Roger T. Rufe, Jr., USCG (Ret.)
President
The Ocean Conservancy
Washington, DC
Additional Witnesses May Be Added...
http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2003/hrg031021a.htmlIt's a lot to digest. Entire legal careers are dedicated to Law of the Sea, and a couple are already dedicated to Space Law. As Law of the Sea goes, Space Law will follow by simple extension.
The problem for those who wish to exploit either the sea or space is that a private individual or corporation is excluded from such activity without sponsorship of his home country and the home country is severely constrained by treaty. Thus, there can be no moon mining, no asteroid mining until the signatories come to some agreement on the specific plan for the specific asteroid, and such mining would be highly regulated and taxed at least. The chance of profit under those conditions is near zero. Therefore, space will not be developed. However it is only a treaty and can be withdrawn from. There would be repercussions in the diplomatic arena and howls from the postmodernists. The postmodernists would give in immediately since they consider they have already lost everything; the diplomats would smooth everything out so the withdrawal shouldn't have any real negative effect. Anyway, Space Law is in its infancy and shouldn't necessarily be developed in an evolutionary way from Law of the Sea.