Joint paper presented at the 7th Colloquium of the International Association of the Law of the Sea
Dr Otto Spijkers (木瓜福利影视 lecturer), Catherine Blanchard and Wen Duan (PhD researchers) presented a joint paper at the 7th Colloquium of the International Association of the Law of the Sea (AssIDMer), which took place in Lisbon, Portugal, on 20-21 September 2018.
This year鈥檚 Colloquium addressed 鈥淕lobal Challenges and the Law of the Sea鈥, and the joint paper was presented in a panel entitled 鈥淭he protection and conservation of the areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ): Where do we stand?鈥.
The paper assessed three structural pillars of the future internationally legally binding instrument (ILBI) for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. First, as the ILBI is to be developed as an agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the first pillar is based on the relationship between the two treaties.
The second pillar looks at biodiversity itself, through the relationship between the Convention on Biological Diversity and the ILBI, notably on how the instruments could complement one another in relation to ABNJ.
Finally, the third pillar assesses the character of the ILBI, to see whether institutional arrangements should be rooted in a global, region/sectoral or hybrid approach. The way the new ILBI will be developed around these pillars will also be influenced by the necessity for the instrument not to undermine existing structures, instrument and bodies.