ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study that deals with a moving target: the ongoing process towards an international regime for the protection of marine biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ). This case is peculiar: it involves institutional layering in two originally separate issue areas: the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in international waters, and ABS from Marine Genetic Resources (MGR). The linkage between the two is what enables institutional layering in both issue areas, and the eventual conclusion of the ongoing negotiation process will transform the governance architectures for both. In the case of marine biodiversity in ABNJ, what is at stake is the centralization of the presently highly fragmented system of ocean governance that involves various sectoral and regional approaches yet lacks a central, coordinating institution. In the case of MGR, the question is how to implement benefit-sharing in an issue area for which it was originally not intended, that is, beyond the confines of national jurisdiction.
