Abstract
This article examines the re-emergence of unilateral deep seabed mining by the United States and its implications for the concept of the common heritage of mankind. Triggered by Executive Order 14285 and the resurrection of the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, the U.S. approach challenges the multilateral framework established under Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 1994 Implementing Agreement. While the prevailing view holds that unilateral seabed mining is prohibited by customary international law and that only the International Seabed Authority (ISA) may lawfully operationalize the common heritage principle, the United States maintains that it is not bound by UNCLOS and may pursue a parallel regime grounded in freedom of the high seas, environmental safeguards, and alternative benefit-sharing mechanisms. Against the backdrop of intensifying geopolitical competition over critical minerals and supply-chain security, the article traces the historical and legal foundations of the U.S. position, including the earlier Reciprocating States Regime, and evaluates whether the DSHMRA can be reconciled with the substantive elements of the common heritage principle. It further analyzes the constraints imposed on UNCLOS States parties by doctrines of non-recognition, due diligence, and erga omnes partes obligations, while identifying limited avenues for lawful cooperation on ancillary and downstream activities. The article concludes that contemporary seabed mining reflects not a rejection of common heritage, but a contest over its meaning, institutional form, and distributive justice in a fragmented international legal order.
html
