Marine data and UNCLOS. The United Nations convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is considered to be the legal framework for all the activities conducted in the oceans. But the Convention itself does not make any direct reference to microbial organisms or genetic resources, as the available scientific knowledge on genetics was limited during the time of drafting of the Convention (between 1973 and 1982). However, some of the important obligations under the Convention relating to marine scientific research are applicable to modern large-scale database management also. Notwithstanding the fact that genetic resources are not mentioned by the UNCLOS and given that customary international law recognizes the sovereignty of a state over its natural 49 Ibid. 50 Ibid. 51 See, for example, Xxxxxxxxx et al, Nature (2009) and Xxxx Xxxxxx, Nature (2009) resources ( first affirmed by the United Nations General Assembly in 197752 and reaffirmed in the Preamble of the Convention on Biological Diversity) they are subject to the national sovereignty of the state where they are found. Therefore, as far as jurisdiction is concerned, the marine genetic resources that are within national jurisdiction are under the jurisdiction of the coastal state. Within the territorial sea (12 nautical miles from the baseline), the coastal state exercise sovereignty over natural resources.53 In the exclusive economic zone (200 nautical miles from the baseline), the coastal state has the “sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources”.54 In the continental shelf (“the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin”), the coastal state has “sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources”.55 In areas beyond national jurisdiction (the high sea and the Area), the only natural resources that are managed by the UNCLOS are minerals of the seabed, subject to the legal regime of common heritage of mankind. This gave rise to what was then called the deepest of the ironies56: minerals that were seen as the next “blue gold” to be exploited were regulated, but their exploitation was discovered to be technologically not feasible, while marine genetic resources that were not regulated were becoming the new promising “blue gold” to be exploited more feasibly. Marine genetic resources beyond natio...
