Principles - the basis of deep seabed mining

How come deep seabed resources belong to everyone? How can almost anyone dive and pick some? The answer is almost simple, it is because of principles that are governing the Area. Especially, the Common Heritage of (Hu)Mankind principle.

In a broad sense, principles could be understood as general ideas. There is a wide variety of principles that are applicable to many areas. For example, most people base their lives on certain principles such as do not betray; do not harm and others. The same goes for the Area and deep seabed mining. There are many principles that could or even should be analysed when discussing the Area and deep seabed mining. Nevertheless, only the Common Heritage of (Hu)Mankind or CHM principle will be discussed separately in its own blog post.

There is a few reasons why this principle deserves such attention. Firstly, the CHM principle is the core of the legal regime in the Area, all the current and future mining activities in the Area are based on this principle. If we threw this principle out, consequently the existing legal regime of the Area would go to waste as well. Hence decades of work would be erased. Secondly, the CHM is a complex principle that contains multiple components that basically uncover all that you need to know about the Area, for example how it should be managed or how resources should be picked up from the sea floor (well, not all you need to know but a very big slice. Thirdly, the CHM principle has a special legal status in the international law system. Without going into many details, the aforementioned legal status is so special that a state or a group of states would have a very hard time trying to remove or change it if that is even possible.¹

The CHM principle consists of five elements:
(1) Non-appropriation;
(2) Common management;
(3) Benefit sharing;
(4) Peaceful purposes;
(5) Preservation for future generations.

All these elements are essential for the Area and deep seabed mining. They ensure that the resources at the sea floor could not be monopolized by any state or by any single entity (1ts element) instead it ensures that it would be managed by an impartial institution (2nd element) and the benefits from seabed resources would be shared between all states (3tr element). Also, it guarantees that the Area, its resources, and environment would be protected from military activities (4th element) and preserved that the future generations could enjoy deep seabed benefits as well (5th element). These five elements are basically the axis on which the legal regime of the Area and the current deep seabed mining stand on. Consequently, if you know the CHM principle you are on very good ground to comprehend what the Area and deep seabed mining are all about.

P.S. The principle itself and some of its elements might look slightly old-fashioned. For example, the name of the principle refers to mankind instead of humankind. Furthermore, it lacks strong emphasis on the protection of the marine environment. Nevertheless, this principle and its formulation were created in the early eighties and obviously it represents that period. There are some flaws that could be addressed to make this principle more up to date, but it is still very valid and accurate even now.

¹For more details see UNCLOS 311(6).