The U.S. Navy has been the master of the seven seas since World War II, the pre-eminent maritime force.It seems odd, then, that Navy leadership has long pressed for what amounts to a redundant international hall pass.

A steady stream of admirals and service chiefs over many years  have advocated for the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, or the Law of the  Sea Treaty — an accord rejected by President Ronald Reagan in 1982.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for example, said  this treaty “codifies navigational rights and freedoms essential for our global  mobility.”

It is true that the treaty’s navigational articles codify noncontroversial  traditional maritime rules of the road. But the Navy has successfully preserved  and protected its navigational rights and freedoms for 200 years without it.

For the treaty to be “essential for our global mobility,” the Navy would have  to suffer a devastating decline — either from [continue reading in new window...]