October 11, 2007 9:18AM # Debating the Law of the Sea Treaty By [Christopher A. Preble](https://www.cato.org/people/christopher-preble) --- SHARE The Law of the Sea Treaty (dubbed LOST by opponents, and LOS by supporters), represents the culmination of a decades-long project to clarify the rules governing the oceans, from the seabed to the waves. The treaty, first rejected by President Reagan in 1982, has been revised over the years; now prominent Republicans, including Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, are urging passage. The Bush Administration has quietly endorsed the process. Doug Bandow, who wrote [a paper for Cato on the subject ](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5124)two years ago, makes a strong case for why the Senate should reject the treaty and continue with the status quo. He squares off this week against Raj Purohit of Citizens for Global Solutions in [an online debate at the Partnership for a Secure America](http://blog.psaonline.org/2007/10/10/the-lost-attack-on-entrepreneurship/). If you haven’t followed the issue closely, Doug and Raj do a good job of spelling out the relevant arguments for and against. ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).