Stewardship Beyond the State: Implications for the Regulation of Marine Genetic Resources in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

Abstract

The urgent need to rethink our fundamental relationship with the natural world is brought into sharp relief in respect of the legal status of marine genetic resources. The chapter explores how the concept of stewardship could aid this rethink and how it could be fruitfully applied to the regulation of marine genetic resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction. It provides a typology of stewardship concepts, including stewardship as an intellectual construct, as a form of conduct and as practical arrangement. After presenting the parameters for an analytical framework for stewardship, the chapter explores how stewardship could apply to the governance of areas beyond national jurisdiction through the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (the BBNJ Agreement).