Solving the Potential Conflict: High Seas Marine Protected Areas and the Exercise of Sovereign Rights Over the Continental Shelf Beyond 200 Nautical Miles

Abstract

Despite representing more than 60% of Earth’s oceans, and hosting a substantial part of its biodiversity, marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) remain largely unprotected. Consequently, the discussions on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in ABNJ have become the focus of the International Community over the past decade. As a result, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) created a Preparatory Committee (Prep Com) to make substantive recommendations to UNGA on the elements of a draft text for an international legally-binding instrument (ILBI) under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for better conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in ABNJ. During the Prep Com meetings, the advent of potential conflicts between sovereign rights connected to the Continental Shelf beyond 200 nautical miles (OCS) and the substance matter of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the High Seas (HS), was expressed as one of the pressing concerns. Consequently, it is feared that such concerns will somehow deter these States from expressing their consent to be bound by the agreement in the end. This research aims to analyse the aforementioned potential conflict and, through such an analysis, push the undergoing work of the Prep Com forward by providing a possible legal framework to prevent said conflict from having undesired results. This has been done through an examination of the distinct frameworks for the HS and the OCS, along with an analysis of where and how these frameworks might collide as a result of the establishment of an MPA in the HS. In addition to this, already proposed solutions for said conflict have been described and analysed. After having done so, an alternative far-reaching and all-inclusive proposal for a solution procedure has been suggested.