Why the Rush?
Are America's Shelf Claims Null and Void?
"The Biden administration has stated that it may want to join [UNCLOS]," Maloof suggested. "We'll see what it does in its remaining months in office here during this term. If it gets re-elected, then I think it will be an almost certainty that the US joins the UN Law of the Sea. So, I think there is a dispute mechanism, but I think it really helps when countries have good diplomatic ties to want to sit down and talk. And there are some overlapping jurisdictions. Certainly continental shelves meet and those demarcations are going to have to be worked out. And they have in the past but on a bilateral basis. And then the results are submitted to the UN and to be held by the UN, in effect, registering claims. So claims are submitted by individual countries and other countries, unless there's a dispute, recognize those claims or sit down and talk them out."