The Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction

Exploring the evolution of the biological diversity, this thesis carefully examines the pivotal steps in the emergence and development of the environmental awareness and of the consequent necessity to preserve the natural environment and the organisms living in it, with a particular attention to the marine area. This document is structured in two main parts. The first part investigates the main steps towards the evolution of the interest on the environment, starting from the ancient legislations on the area of the seas, mostly motivated by a blame of sovereign power of nations, and continues by exploring the main ideas of ancient thinkers dealing with the maritime areas. The analysis extends towards the arisen necessity of an effective codification of the law of the sea: from this perspective the three United Nations Conferences on the Law of the Sea are described. Lastly, it is deeply analysed the resulting most comprehensive codification of such area of law: the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The second part of the thesis describes the fundamental evolution of the environmental awareness: from an anthropocentric perspective to a real commitment with the organisms living in the environment and a special attention to the preservation of the biological diversity. In this part, the first attempts of legislations in this area of law are described, with a particular accent put on the maritime zone. Nevertheless, the most accurate and complete codification resulted from the latest United Nations agreement: the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction. This, also known as BBNJ Agreement or High Seas Treaty, is carefully examined. By analysing the main evolving phases of environmental protection and biological preservation and recognising that the subject has only recently been codified, and its treaty still needs to become binding on the parties, it becomes evident that the efforts towards the conservation of biological diversity and the preservation of nature are still in the process of taking shape.