The United States and the Treaty Law of the Sea was first published in 1959. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

The entire period of the Republic is covered in this account of United States participation in treaties which seek to regulate peacetime use of the sea, its resources, and the air space over it. Noting a revival of maritime interest in America, Professor Reiff describes current uses and abuses of the sea with respect to transportation, communications, exploitation of products and energy, waste disposal, and recreation. He relates developments in economies, technology, social science, and the natural sciences to the expanding web of treaty law, and reports some of the discussion and actions which took place at the United Nations Conference on Sea Law in the spring of 1958.