ABSTRACT
The lengthy and complex negotiations within United States (US) government and United Nations were tracked by the affected industries and a small band of journalists and academicians. The idea that the US could advance its interests through international organizations was influential in the 1960s and 1970s. Transactions costs were colossal, so a policy once reached would be extremely difficult to change. The Draft Convention stipulated that international rules and standards to reduce vessel-source pollution were to emerge from an international organization or a general diplomatic conference. The attempt of the US to advance its interests through multilateral negotiations in a one-nation, one-vote, United Nations-like forum was an unambiguous failure from the standpoint of getting an economically satisfactory treaty. At the final meeting of the 1982 United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea negotiating session, the US, in another unanticipated manipulation of the agenda, abandoned the "consensus" procedures it had originally demanded and called for roll-call votes.
