BOOK REVIEWS George V. Galdorisi and Kevin R. Vienna. Be- and the careful balancing of navigation and nat- yond the Law of the Sea: New Directions for U.S. ional authority issues were the product of US Oceans Policy. Westport, CT and London: initiatives. Nevertheless, in 1982 the Reagan Ad- Praeger Press, 1997. xii + 229 pp., appendices, ministration turned its back on the Convention. select bibliography, index. US $65, cloth; ISBN The United States formally rejected the Treaty 0-275-95754-3 and for a number of years actively conspired against the Convention. After a decade of negotiation, the United Nations In the early 1990s, renegotiation of aspects Convention on the Law of the Sea was finalized of the 1982 Treaty regarding deep seabed mining in 1982. This Treaty establishes the constitutional met with US approval and in 1994 the Clinton framework for ocean law and politics that has Administration recommended to the US Senate guided countries for the last two decades and that that American membership in the Law of the Sea will guide countries into the next century. The Treaty regime was in the best interests of the Treaty directs what ocean waters are national and United States. Under US constitutional law, ratifi- intern ational and what authority countries (in- cation of such a major treaty must be signified by cluding Canada) have over activities like fishing a two-thirds majority vote of the US Senate. As of and marine pollution prevention in national and late 1998, the US Senate Foreign Relations intern ational waters. Thus, the 200-nautical mile Committee, chaired by Senator Jesse Helms, had national ocean zone is a creature of this Treaty not put the question of US ratification of the Law and within this zone (but not beyond it) Canada of the Sea Treaty on its agenda. has exclusive jurisdiction over living resources. This book is a plea to Senator Helms and the The constitutional balance in the 1982 Law US Senate to recognize the merits of the Law of of the Sea Convention is among: states desiring the Sea Convention and to facilitate American exclusive jurisdiction over resources (living and membership in the Treaty regime. The co-authors non-living) adjacent to their coasts; states not are both senior officers in the US Navy. The wanting to have this resource authority interfere position taken in the book is broadly reflective of with vessel navigational rights exercised either that of the United States Department of Defense. for military or trade reasons; and states demand- The key concern for the Department of Defense ing that mineral resources of the deep ocean floor has always been navigation rights and access to not be subject to national jurisdiction but be part strategic minerals. These were the two principal of the common heritage of humankind. arguments raised by the Reagan Administration As a technical legal matter, not overly impor- against the Law of the Sea Treaty. The co-authors tant regarding the Law of the Sea Convention, the take the view that the Law of the Sea Convention Treaty only came into force in 1994 and is only creates no impediments on access to strategic binding upon those states which have ratified the minerals. More critically, the authors argue that Convention. The pri ncipal impact of entry into the navigational regime established by the Ocean force of the Law of the Sea Convention has been Convention, specifically regarding innocent pas- the creation of institutions such as the Interna- sage rights through coastal waters and transit tional Seabed Authority and the T ribunal on the passage rights through straits used for interna- Law of the Sea. Non-membership to the Law of tional navigation, are in the best interest of the the Sea Treaty means non-pa rticipation in these United States. More generally, the book argues institutions and a degree of disassociation from a that a stable, universal ocean legal regime with stable ocean law regime. US participation is better than an international As explained in this book, the United States ocean legal regime that may become unstable and was centrally involved in the development of the subject to unwelcomed unilateral activities be- Law of the Sea Treaty. Many of the key concepts cause of US non-participation in the Treaty. 67 68 The Northern Mariner Canada is also a delinquent state regarding was established in Kobe some years ago to en- the Law of the Sea Convention. As a country courage inquiry into such matters, in pa rt by which gained vast areas of ocean space on three sponsoring a series of conferences. The substan- oceans and with interests in fishing, trade, off- tial and weighty tome under review is based on shore mineral extraction, and marine pollution papers presented at the second EMECS meeting, prevention, Canada (along with the United States) held in Baltimore in 1993. It certainly goes a long is conspicuous by its absence as a formal member way towards laying the conceptual foundations of the Law of the Sea Convention regime. Many for "saving seas." of the points made by Galdorisi and Vienna have The editors provide an introductory outline some application to Canada, although the strate- of the issues, while there are eighteen other gic concerns are of less relevance. chapters by twenty-six contributors, mostly from The book is an excellent review of the his- the environmental or political sciences. Mark tory of US American involvement with the Law Sagoff opens the book with a thorough discussion of the Sea Convention and a readable c ritique on of the ethics and issues of "saving seas," to which why the United States should ratify the Ocean Stephen Kellert adds an account of the different Treaty. Specialists will find this book of particu- values that people place on the coastal environ- lar use. It is clear that the main audience is Sena- ment. Robert Nelson then examines some aspects tor Helms and it is equally clear that he has either of modern environmentalism as theological con- not read the book or not been persuaded by its cepts. Other authors look at the output or the arguments and conclusions. nature of scientific inquiry: Frieda Taub examines the real, non-linear behaviour of complex eco- Ted L. McDorman systems, Richard Ambrose tackles the thorny Victoria, British Columbia issue of what it means to "restore" degraded eco- systems, Michael Thompson and Alex Trisoglio L. Anathea Brooks and Stacy D. VanDeveer draw out such complexities as instabilities, uncer- (eds.). Saving the Seas: Values, Scientists, and tainties and socially-constructed conclusions, International Governance. College Park, MD: while Sheila Jasanoff adds a discussion of the Maryland Sea Grant, 1997. xxviii + 480 pp., illus- nature of scientific knowledge and the inevitable trations, maps, photographs, figures, tables, chap- lack of consensus that it involves. All turn their ter notes. US $30, cloth; ISBN 0-943676-62-2. attention to the implications of their observations for the use of science and scientists in public Building on earlier effo rts to "save the whales" decision-making in the environmental arena. and stop oil pollution at sea, the general environ- Later chapters focus more on the machinery mental movement has increasingly turned its for ocean governance, including case studies of attention towards marine issues, successfully the North Sea (J.-P. Ducrotoy), the Baltic (R. drawing both the public and political decision- Serafin and J. Zaleski) and, curiously for a book makers towards a broad agenda of "saving the on "saving seas," the No rth American Great seas." When allied to the widespread failure of Lakes. Chapters by Craig Murphy and Stacy fisheries in the 1990s, the results have included a VanDeveer enter the rarefied air of inte rnational suite of international treaties, revised national law, state sovereignty and inter-governmental co- laws and policies, the declaration of 1998 as the operation. Other contributors touch on the roles "Year of the Ocean" and so forth. All this has of business (V. Haufler), citizens (J. Rosenau) been accompanied by an outpouring of published and scientists (P. Haas and R. Lipschutz), along material, spanning every available medium. with the structures that best employ their varied What this development has lacked, however, talents in "saving" coastal seas. is a solid discussion of what it means to "save a The book is firmly grounded in academic sea," why we (as increasingly-urbanized land- principles and pleasantly free of the activist dwellers) should wish to do so and what chal- propaganda that too often pervades discussions of lenges we will face in pursuing that objective. environmental issues. Indeed, it is sufficiently The International Center for the Environmental "academic" that it often can be heavy-going for Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS) the reader – besides the density of the text, the Book Reviews 69 chapter endnotes total over seventy-five pages, protect over the last four hundred years since while even the list of abbreviations and acronyms Europeans arrived on the scene. Physically, it can runs to more than two! Like most multi-author be considered a bay, a giant estuary, a concatena- works derived from conference papers, this is tion of estuaries, a giant multiple river delta, or more a source of challenging ideas than one of the world's largest tidal pool. Its depths and well-rounded conclusions. Moreover, as might be boundaries shift radically with erosion, changing expected from a book focused on concepts in the water levels, and mutating weather patterns, environmental arena, many of the chapters lack making it a cartographer's nightmare – indeed, the solidity and realism that would come from this work points out that, even today, there is no practical experience managing ocean issues.