An International Legal Concept of Fair and Equitable Benefit-Sharing

Fair and equitable benefit-sharing is a diffuse legal phenomenon in international law that has elicited little investigation with regard to its nature, extent and implications. It has been mostly studied as the cornerstone of the international legal regime on bioprospecting. But, under the radar, a growing number of international legal materials refer to "benefit-sharing" with regard to natural resource use, environmental protection and the use of knowledge. Against this background, this article aims to develop a concept of fair and equitable benefit-sharing deriving from international environmental law, international human rights law and the law of the sea, with a view to shifting the investigation from current sectoral/technical approaches to the perspective of general international law. The conclusions will develop a research agenda on the basis of the proposed conceptualization.