Ricerc@Sapienza

This research addresses one of the most pressing issues the international law of the sea has been dealing with in recent times, i.e the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ).
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), no State can unilaterally designate MPAs in ABNJ. Indeed, the existing ones have been established through the regional or sectoral legal frameworks already in force. While helpful in fostering the protection and conservation of the biodiversity in ABNJ, these measures suffer from two drawbacks. Firstly, they are only binding for parties to those treaties; secondly the current MPAs only protect the water column or the sea-bed from some specific sources of pollution.
The necessity to designate MPAs which overcome the rigid zonal scheme of the UNCLOS and apply an integrated approach, thus ensuring the comprehensive protection of the water column and the seabed alike, has been voiced often times.
In 2017, an Intergovernmental conference on the conservation of marine biodiversity in ABNJ was convened under the auspices of the UN to define a proper legal framework and a global mechanism for the establishment of MPAs.
Despite a general agreement on the importance of coordination among existing international bodies to that end, no provision of the negotiating text operationalises this principle.
This project aims at identifying and analysing areas of possible overlapping uses of the marine areas, to highlight the relevance of a coordinated effort in the establishment of MPAs.
Dealing with three case studies, the research will serve as a proof test for the new agreement. It will touch upon the most appropriate institutional approach for the creation of MPAs, namely a global or a regional one. Based on practical instances taken from the current and expected uses of the ocean space, it will identify the key-players in the establishment of MPAs and support options that are viable for States.