National Interest and the Law of the Sea : Council Special Report No. 46, May 2009

The 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, the overarching governance framework for the worlds oceans, has been signed and ratified by 156 countries and the European Community, but not by the United States. Washington treats most of the convention and the 1994 agreement on its implementation as customary international law, but it remains among only a handful of countries, including Libya and North Korea, that have yet to formally accede to the convention.