Similarly, these experts concede that the fact that the United States has not signed the Law of the Sea, the international convention determining who has access to offshore oil and other maritime mineral rights, presents a risk of international conflict. But they also point to the upside: the oil industry, in its never-ending search for more reserves, need not beg Congress for the right to despoil Alaska.
同样，这些专家们承认美国没有签署《海洋法公约》（Law of the Sea），这部决定谁有权开采近海石油和其它海洋矿产权归属的国际公约，从而造成了国际冲突发生的风险。但他们同时也指出了好的一面：石油产业在对更多石油储藏的无休止探索中，不需要企求美国国会批准就能掠夺阿拉斯加了。