On 29 October, Rohan Nanda (Law & Tech Lab and Department of Advanced Computing Sciences) and I gave a talk for ELSA Maastricht, the Maastricht chapter of the European Law Students’ Association. The title was ‘Who Owns a Microbe from the Deep Sea? Your First Day in Ocean Compliance’.
The session was for students with no background in the field. We began with a simple puzzle. A microbe is collected from the high seas, the waters beyond any single State that make up close to two-thirds of the ocean. Its genetic sequence is read off and uploaded to an open database, where anyone can download it. Who owns it, and who should share in the benefits of what is later made from it?
From there we introduced the BBNJ Agreement (the treaty on marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction) and the rules it sets for marine genetic resources and their digital sequence information. In the second part, we showed how AI tools can help check whether research and commercial use actually comply with those rules.
Many students came along, and the questions, which carried on well after the talk, were the best part of it all.
My sincere thanks to Matti Below, Christos Tsalkitzis, and the whole ELSA Maastricht team for hosting us, for the excellent organisation and warm welcome, and for the lovely gift. Thanks also to Rohan and to the Maastricht Law & Tech Lab.
