The Implementation and Compliance Committee of the ABBNJ: a Legal Prospection on Potential Modalities and Pro- cedures

The Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (ABBNJ) stands for the new generation of agreements implementing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Among the novelties of the ABBNJ is the sophisticated implementation process supported by an institutional framework and a dispute settlement mechanism. This paper zooms in on one of the implementing bodies established in the Agreement, the Implementation and Compliance Committee (IC). While the modalities and rules of procedure of the IC are to be determined by the Preparatory Commission and the first Conference of the Parties, some questions arise. What type of functions and procedures is the IC expected to perform? What degree of participation may the stakeholders of the ABBNJ enjoy in such procedures? What is the relationship between the IC and the dispute settlement mechanism of the ABBNJ? In addressing these and other issues, the paper proceeds as follows. In a first section, the paper situates the implementation and compliance techniques of the Agreement by looking at the approaches followed in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Convention (LoSC) and other agreements. A second section delves into procedural aspects of the IC, such as the composition of the IC, the most suitable non-compliance procedures and the question of standing to trigger them. In a third section, the paper examines the complementary role of the IC to the dispute settlement mechanism. It examines the role of the IC in preventing disputes, the value of the IC’s decisions in contentious and advisory proceedings, and the role of the IC in facilitating the implementation of judicial and arbitral decisions.