Towards an Integrated Legal Regime for Data and Sample Regulation under China’s Deep Seabed Mining Law

Abstract

Abstract China enacted its Deep Seabed Mining Law in 2016 and promulgated the provisional measures for deep-sea data and sample management under Article 18 of the Deep Seabed Mining Law in 2017. After the institutional reforms in 2018, China entered a new era of ocean governance. This article presents a critical assessment of the provisional measures issued by the former State Oceanic Administration and proposes recommendations for the revisions of the provisional measures. Part one of this article introduces the background and briefly describes the purpose of this article. Part two provides an overview of the provisional measures for deep-sea data and sample management. Part three delivers a critical analysis of these provisional measures, demonstrating the flaws that the current provisional measures suffer. Part four proposes recommendations for the revision of the provisional measures, suggesting that an integrated data and sample management measure with a higher legal hierarchy should be promulgated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and that a streamlined regulatory framework for deep-sea data and sample management should be adopted.