ABSTRACT
In June 2010, leading agricultural biotechnology providers BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow Agrosciences, DuPont, Monsanto Company and Syngenta signed ‘the Compact’, an agreement designed to provide States with a process for binding arbitration to seek redress in the event that a living modified organism (LMO) causes damage to biological diversity. A few months later in October 2010, the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress for transboundary movements of LMOs was adopted. Both the Compact, a private sector remedy, and the Supplementary Protocol, developed under the auspices of the United Nations, place an emphasis on preventing damage to biological diversity and assuring timely remediation should damage occur. This chapter discusses the development of the Compact, how it works and how it can be used to complement the liability and redress remedies available to a State under the Supplementary Protocol.
