The High Seas Treaty: A Critical Perspective Event

Event details

This Event is funded by the Gard/IML fund, organised by the Institute of Maritime Law and the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute, University of Southampton, with tailored support from Public Policy|Southampton. The Event aims at analysing the impact of the 2023 High Seas Treaty with the view of identifying possible obstacles in terms of implementation and suggest the way forward. The Treaty contains many ambiguities, none more so than the applicability of the ‘common heritage’ and ‘freedom of the seas’ principles. The issue area most impacted is marine genetic resources (MGRs). Historically, the application of ‘common heritage’ to resources in the Area (minerals) was understood to involve monetary benefits upon commercialisation. Indeed, the International Seabed Authority is actively working on the mechanism for such benefit sharing. For MGRs, the question of benefit sharing – when it should happen and what it should include – was especially contentious. Developed states are worried that ‘common heritage’ might go too far and impinge upon ‘freedoms of the seas’ associated with resource privatisation. The G77 and other developing states preferred a more precise and obligatory set of rules for benefit sharing. The final treaty text contains two areas of fundamental ambiguity, where interpretation and implementation really matter: First, the final treaty text contains no article on intellectual property rights. This is concerning because of the inherent clash between patents and shared access, which will require legal interpretations across treaties. The idea that the Treaty “should not undermine” existing agreements was ambiguous from inception, and negotiations did not produce a consensus on its specific meaning. Second, the final treaty text assigns key decisions about monetary benefit sharing to institutions that have yet to be established – the Conference of Parties (COP) and the Access and Benefit Sharing committee. Much remains to be determined, decided, and delivered about the modalities of benefit sharing from MGRs.