[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 96 (Wednesday, June 5, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3964-S3965]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



             International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

  Mr. President, on another matter, unaccountable international 
judicial juntas have made headlines in recent weeks.
  First, it was the self-aggrandizing International Criminal Court, 
whose rogue prosecutor sought preposterous arrest warrants for Israeli 
leaders in a grotesque attempt to draw moral equivalence with Hamas 
terrorists.
  Not to be outdone, the unelected and unaccountable International 
Tribunal for the Law of the Sea has issued an advisory opinion that 
seeks to establish an international law requirement to regulate 
greenhouse gases, including a right of action against wealthy, 
industrialized nations.
  The New York Times reports that such an opinion is unsurprisingly 
expected to lead to ``wide-ranging claims for damages against polluting 
nations.'' The paper of record also tells us the U.N.'s International 
Court of Justice is also seized of the matter.
  Climate justice warriors are swooning as they contemplate the 
largesse they might receive from this redistributive lawfare. This is a 
money grab and a power grab, pure and simple.
  All of this unaccountable globalist socialism is just another reason 
President Reagan refused to sign the U.N. Convention on the Law of the 
Sea and why the Senate has rightly refused to ratify it. At this point, 
it should be called the ``ICC of the Sea.''
  I know some of my colleagues believe we should ratify this treaty, 
and they mean well, but I would urge my friends on both sides of the 
aisle to ask themselves if they are willing to put U.S. sovereignty 
into the hands of the ``ICC of the Sea.''
  No country or entity has done more to protect the freedom of 
navigation than the United States. The U.S. and allied navies are the 
ones who protect commercial shipping lanes the global economy relies 
on, and self-important jurists of the ``ICC of the Sea'' would do well 
to remember this fact the next time they consider biting the hand that 
feeds.

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