| Summary: | Oceans cover 70% of the planet’s surface and constitute the most important reserve in biodiversity. Although our knowledge of oceans remains incomplete, a global consensus has emerged regarding the need to preserve the marine biodiversity. However, the law keeps favouring the exploitation, sometimes irrational, of these natural resources, most notably for the purpose of genetic research. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Convention on Biodiversity both reflect this very trend, and show how difficult it is to deal with the specificity of deep sea waters, on natural as well as legal grounds. Beyond these shortcomings, the two Conventions have nevertheless managed to gather most of the international community and to provoke a debate between the those exploiting and those protecting the marine biodiversity.
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