CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

PETR VÁLEK CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ Affairs must be consulted. 57 If the Act is violated, the Ministry of Industry and Trade may impose a fine in the amount of up to 100 mil. CZK 58 (approximately 4.5 mil. USD). The growing demand for metals needed for the production of cell phones, computers, and batteries for the electric cars, coupled with the scientific and technological progress, may indeed make sea bed mining an attractive business of the future, even for a landlocked State such as the Czech Republic. However, this new business raises new concerns from the point of view of protection of the marine environment, which will be addressed in the next part. A New UNCLOS Implementation Agreement under Negotiation Under the current treaty practice, a new multilateral treaty on an issue important to the international community as a whole is being rarely concluded, perhaps with the exception of the protection of climate. Instead, many States (or their political leadership) prefer to produce legally non-binding documents, such as declarations or memorandums of understanding, in order to avoid the long, complicated, and uncertain domestic approval process required for treaties (sometimes involving the parliament). This observation can be demonstrated in the example of the most discussed international legal document at present – The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration – that was negotiated as a legally non- binding document. 59 In this context, any process possibly leading to a multilateral treaty containing legal obligations of States deserves appropriate attention. This is the case of “an international legally binding instrument under the UNCLOS on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction” (hereinafter, the “Instrument”). It should be recalled that the Instrument would not be the first implementing agreement under the UNCLOS: the first one was the above-stated 1994 Implementation Agreement, and the second one was the Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the UNCLOS relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks (adopted in New York on 5 August 1995). The Instrument is supposed to further advance the protection of marine environment and, at the same time, react to the latest technological development enabling the use of marine genetic resources. Although the UNCLOS deals with the Protection and Preservation of Marine Environment in Part XII, the biological diversity as such is not protected. 60 There is also no regulation of marine genetic resources in the UNCLOS, which is hardly surprising, as it was adopted in 1982. The process leading towards adoption of the Instrument was formally launched by the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly (hereinafter, the “UNGA”) 69/292 of 19 June 2015. The UNGA decided to develop the Instrument and, for this reason, “to establish, prior to holding an intergovernmental conference, a preparatory committee… to make substantive recommendations to the General Assembly on the elements of a draft text” 59 Paragraph 7 of the Preamble of the Final Draft of The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration of 11 July 2018: “This Global Compact presents a non-legally binding, cooperative framework that builds on the commitments agreed upon by Member States in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. …”, available at: https://www.un.org/pga/72/wp-content/uploads/sites/51/2018/07/migration.pdf. 60 More information on this issue can be found in: ŽÁKOVSKÁ, K.: Ochrana mořské biodiverzity v mezinárodním právu (The Protection of Marine Biodiversity in International Law) , Prague 2010. 4. 57 Ibid., § 10(5). 58 Ibid., §§ 15-19.

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