Database on National Legislation with Respect to Activities in the Area
Article 153 (4) of UNCLOS provides that the obligation of the sponsoring States in accordance with article 139 of the Convention entails “taking all measures necessary to ensure” compliance by the sponsored contractor.
Annex III, article 4 (4) of UNCLOS makes it clear that such sponsoring States’ “responsibility to ensure” applies “within their legal systems”, and therefore requires the sponsoring States to adopt “laws and regulations” and to take “administrative measures which are, within the framework of its legal system, reasonably appropriate for securing compliance by persons under its jurisdiction”.
During the 17th session of ISA in 2011, the Council further invited sponsoring States and other members, as appropriate, to provide information on, or texts of, relevant national laws, regulations and administrative measures to the ISA Secretariat (ISBA/17/C/20, para. 3).
The present collection of laws, regulations and administrative measures with regard to activities in the Area is based on submissions made by member States. The texts are reproduced in the form and in the language(s) in which they were received from member States and were not formally edited and/or translated by ISA.
Disclaimer: Reference to the external websites below does not imply endorsement by the ISA Secretariat of their contents. Any views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of the ISA Secretariat. The hyperlinks are provided solely for informational purposes.