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About "The Case for the Law of the Sea"
Most other nations have ratified the UN Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) since it was written in 1982. The US was reluctant to join until some amendments were made, but after the amendments, Pres. Clinton finally signed it in 1994.
But it’s been sitting in the US Senate awaiting ratification for well over 20 years now. That’s bad for two major reasons. First, all of our military experts tell us that we need UNCLOS to ensure navigational rights for our military and allow us a seat at the table when international law on freedom of navigation is negotiated. Second, ratifying UNCLOS would open up economic opportunities with the exploitation of ocean resources not available to us today.
The United States claims as a matter of foreign policy that we adhere to all requirements of UNCLOS in our operations and laws today. So there can’t possibly be any disadvantages to joining – and we’ll gain the benefits of participation and having a say in how it operates in the future, instead of having only responsibilities with no rights.
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Coach Vance debated in National Forensic League debate while in high school from 1979-1982. In college, he judged at high school NFL tournaments in North Carolina. A homeschooling dad himself, he realized the growing potential and benefit of homeschool debate and switched over to coaching homeschoolers a couple years later. In 2001, he helped Chris Jeub with bringing The Blue Book to a more advanced level. He has been co-authoring Blue Book ever since.