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Banking on a Patent Solution for Sharing Ex Situ Genetic Resources from Antarctic Waters

Regulating access and benefit sharing of Antarctica’s ex situ genetic resources is surprisingly complex. While the Antarctic Treaty System is silent on the issue, national access and benefit sharing frameworks may apply on a case-by-case basis depending on the timing, circumstances and nature of the original extraction from Antarctic waters. This chapter navigates Australia’s legislation applicable to the Australian Antarctic Territory to illustrate the legal complexities. This chapter argues that the lack of coordination between ex situ repositories for exchange of aquatic genetic resources combined with the complex regulatory arrangements means there is little legal basis for the benefits from the use of Antarctica’s genetic resources to flow back to the Antarctic Treaty Area or to achieve the Antarctic Treaty’s objectives of cooperation and freedom of scientific investigation in the interests of science and the progress of all humankind. The Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting appears to be pinning its hopes on the proposed instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to resolve the legal issues. This chapter concludes that in the meantime, the evolving system of patent law defences may prove to be an unexpected and underestimated ally for achieving the Antarctic Treaty’s objectives.