What Are the Next Steps for the International Seabed Authority after the Invocation of the ‘Two-year Rule’?

In late June 2021, the Republic of Nauru invoked a legal provision known as the ‘two-year rule’ at the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which effectively obliges the Council of the ISA to complete the elaboration of the mineral exploitation regulations within the prescribed time of two years, that is, by 9 July 2023. This article provides an update on recent developments at the ISA since the invocation of the two-year rule, outlining six options that appear to be available to the ISA Council in response to the invocation of the rule.

Polymetallic Nodules: Resource Potential and Mining Prospects

Deep-sea minerals such as polymetallic nodules have attracted significant interest among stakeholders not only for evaluating their potential as an alternative source of critical metals that are required for various industrial applications including green energy but also in developing technology for their exploitation. There has been a steady increase in the number of contractors having exploration rights over large tracts on the seafloor in the “Area,” and the International Seabed Authority that is mandated with the responsibility of regulating such activities is in the process of preparing a code for exploitation of these deep-sea minerals. This commentary takes a look at the resource potential and mining prospects of polymetallic nodules while addressing the economic and environmental issues associated with them.

Common Heritage of Mankind and the Deep Seabed Area Beyond National Jurisdiction: Past, Current, and Future Prospects

The common heritage of mankind (CHM) is of a relatively recent origin. This study examines Arvid Pardo's speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 1967, in which he urged that body to designate the seabed beyond national control as CHM. The commentary next looks at Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 82, as amended by the 1994 Agreement, which incorporates the CHM as a core principle governing mineral mining in the deep bottom area beyond national jurisdiction. Finally, it discusses CHM's future prospects in relation to the draft International Seabed Authority (ISA) Exploitation Regulations, the Enterprise, an ISA organ that has yet to be operationalized, and ongoing discussions about an international legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity under the UNCLOS. The purpose of this study is to highlight the complexity surrounding the CHM, which is a key principle governing deep seabed activities.

Regulating Access and Sustainable Development of Deep-Sea Minerals for the Benefit of All Humanity

Regulating access to and sustainable development of deep-seabed minerals for the benefit of all humanity is a gradual revolution that is changing the way humankind approaches global natural resources. The International Seabed Authority has the exclusive mandate to manage seabed minerals in the international seabed area (the Area) on behalf of humankind as a whole. It is putting in place legal and scientific solutions to reach the global, science-based and consensus-driven regulatory regime that will enable sustainable and equitable exploitation of the Area.

Integrating Sustainable Development into the Adoption of Emergency Orders for the Protection of the Common Heritage of Mankind and the Marine Environment

Subjacent to the concept of sustainable development lies a narrative of prevention or mitigation of damages that can constitute a useful argumentative mechanism. In particular, this narrative provides coherence to the motivation behind emergency orders issued by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which are aimed at the protection of the common heritage of mankind and the marine environment. Adopting a strong legal discourse from the beginning would subsequently strengthen the position of the Authority before the Seabed Disputes Chamber should a contractor decide to challenge the emergency order. This is especially true in instances where a contractor seeks to determine the liability of the ISA, as well as compensation for any economic losses the emergency order may have caused to its investment.

Strategic Environmental Planning for Deep Seabed Mining in the Area

Discussions approximately an environmental control method for deep seabed mining in the Area had been underway for some the years. Both states and scientists have known for such an environmental control method. In 2018, the International Seabed Authority has followed its first 5-year strategic plan, masking all elements of its mandate. This article examines the brand-new strategic plan integrates factors of an environmental control method and what is probably missing. It demonstrates that even as a few overlaps exist, there are numerous key gaps left via way of means of the modern strategic plan which will be stuffed via the way of means of an environmental control method. To operationalize those desires and objectives, development ought to be measurable; thus, objectives are set, reviews are assessed, and suitable responses are awarded. Many control equipment and toots are relevant for accomplishing environmental desires. To date, the ISA has taken into consideration marine spatial making plans in large part across the modern exploration settlement blocks. Other factors of environmental control, which include the necessities for baseline studies, effect assessment, post-effect tracking, and the remedy of dangerous consequences and extreme damage want to be carried out to assist well-described environmental desires and objectives. We advocate that this making plans be done for scales largethan man or woman blocks, through a Strategic Environmental Management Plan, to make certain sustainable use of ocean assets throughout the Area.

Testing the Seamount Refuge Hypothesis for Predators and Scavengers in the Western Clarion-Clipperton Zone

Seamounts are common in all ocean basins, and most have summit depths >3,000 m. Nonetheless, these abyssal seamounts are the least sampled and understood seamount habitats. We report bait-attending community results from the first baited camera deployments on abyssal seamounts. Observations were made in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a manganese nodule region stretching from south of Hawaii nearly to Mexico. This zone is one of the main target areas for (potential) large-scale deep-sea nodule mining in the very near future. The Seamount Refuge Hypothesis (SRH) posits that the seamounts found throughout the CCZ provide refugia for abyssal fauna likely to be disturbed by seabed mining, yielding potential source populations for recolonization of mined areas. Here we use baited cameras to test a prediction of this hypothesis, specifically that predator and scavenger communities are shared between abyssal seamounts and nearby abyssal plains. We deployed two camera systems on three abyssal seamounts and their surrounding abyssal plains in three different Areas of Particular Environmental Interests (APEIs), designated by the International Seabed Authority as no-mining areas. We found that seamounts have a distinct community, and differences in community compositions were driven largely by habitat type and productivity changes. In fact, community structures of abyssal-plain deployments hundreds of kilometers apart were more similar to each other than to deployments ∼15 km away on seamounts. Seamount communities were found to have higher morphospecies richness and lower evenness than abyssal plains due to high dominance by synaphobranchid eels or penaeid shrimps. Relative abundances were generally higher on seamounts than on the plains, but this effect varied significantly among the taxa. Seven morphotypes were exclusive to the seamounts, including the most abundant morphospecies, the cutthroat eel Ilyophis arx. No morphotype was exclusive to the abyssal plains; thus, we cannot reject the SRH for much of the mobile megafaunal predator/scavenging fauna from CCZ abyssal plains. However, the very small area of abyssal seamounts compared to abyssal plains suggest that seamounts are likely to provide limited source populations for recolonizing abyssal plains post-mining disturbance. Because seamounts have unique community compositions, including a substantial number of predator and scavenger morphospecies not found on abyssal plains, they contribute to the beta biodiversity of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, and thus indirect mining impacts on those distinct communities are of concern.

Does the International Community Have Efforts to Protect the Marine Environment from Seabed Mining?

Through the United Nations, the international community is seriously paying attention to the use of seabed areas as regulated by the Law of the Sea Convention 1982, which states that the area and its resources are the common heritage of humankind. The 1994 Agreement has implemented chapter XI. The resources are relating to the state's interests in terms of energy exploration and environmental impact aspects. An increasing need for global electronic products by many countries in which of the components are rare minerals. Various minerals such as manganese, polymetallic nodules, and polymetallic sulphur are lying down in the seabed. However, seabed also had an essential role in keeping the marine ecosystem balanced. On the one hand, the human's need for those minerals also cannot be denied. Draft of regulations by the International Seabed Authority to manage deep-sea mining are still insufficient to prevent irrevocable damage to the marine ecosystem and loss of essentials species for the next. On the other hand, the spirit of Sustainable Development Goals 14 concerns life underwater. This paper examines deep-sea mining science from a legal perspective to protect and preserve seabed for the future generation using normative approach describing norms and principles in the Law of the Sea Convention 1982. As a result, the commercialisation of deep-sea mining violates the principle of the convention. Thus, it needs to encourage ISA to enhance the minimum requirements for all contracting parties in the future.

Brazil and the Implementation of Article 82 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Setting the Stage for the Bidding Rounds

This article analyses the challenges that Brazil faces in implementing Article 82 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), which imposes a levy with respect to the exploitation of non-living resources on the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. First, it presents the developments made by Brazil with reference to Articles 76 and 82 of the LOSC, which are closely associated. Then, legal opinions and the conclusions of the Working Group (created to discuss the implementation of Article 82 in Brazil) are examined. Lastly, the tender protocol and the draft concession agreement for the ongoing bidding round – which includes blocks on the outer continental shelf – are considered. The article argues that the conclusions of the Working Group and core provisions of the relevant documents may compromise the proper implementation of Article 82 and impact the future relationship between Brazil and the International Seabed Authority.

Concluding Remarks on Corporate Entity Involvement in Deep Seabed Mining

The conclusion addresses the findings reached throughout this study on the role of private corporate actors in the deep seabed mining regime under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the impact of this upon realisation of the common heritage of mankind. It notes that the ISA is facing significant challenges in devising a workable payment mechanism that will deliver tangible benefits to humanity, while also ensuring sufficient marine environmental protections. The regime’s achievement of the common heritage will be dependent on the regulatory regime of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) fulfilling its potential, and implementing a comprehensive Mining Code to govern the life cycle of deep seabed mining operations. The study concludes by finding that, on balance, the regime is developing in a manner that may render it capable of realising its common heritage goals of securing communitarian benefits to humanity, alongside market-focused objectives. It also concludes that corporate participation may assist in achievement of the common heritage, to the extent that it may provide the commercial means for deep seabed mining to commence.