In operative paragraph 2 of resolution 2750 C (XXV) of 17 December 1970, the General Assembly of the United Nations decided to convene in 1973 a new Conference on the Law of the Sea. Although this Conference will also deal with older aspects of the law of the sea, the cause of this decision was not so much the failure of the conference of 1960 as the necessity to meet the need for legal rules for completely new maritime activities, viz. the use of the floor and subsoil of the deepest oceans. The general philosophy and leading principles on which the new regulation will have to be based, are embodied in General Assembly res. 2749 (XXV), also of 17 December 1970, containing a “Declaration of Principles governing the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor, and the Subsoil thereof, beyond the Limits of National Jurisdiction”, the first concrete result of three years UN activities on the subject. The article tries to give an evaluation of the several principles of the Declaration, as well as of the procedure by which they have been brought about, all this in view of the announced international conference.