Comparing Access and Benefit-sharing in Europe

The concept of access and benefit-sharing (ABS) grew out of the emergence of the global governance of genetic resources during the second half of the twentieth century. The evolution of environmental ethics, of international environ-mental law, of North–South relations, and of international cooperation for scientific research all nourished an international regime, which eventually led to the Nagoya Protocol. The Protocol thus is the product of a series of international legal doctrines.  The story of the Nagoya Protocol thus can be said to be one of legal confluence: born out of a union of legal doctrines,it gathers a large range of legal fields extending far beyond environmental law only, and combines (or will need to combine) existing legal regimes, numerous actors, both public and private, and a multitude of policy and private initiatives.