The Structure of the International Seabed Authority

What is the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and should we care?

The ISA was established in 1982 under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as an autonomous organization responsible for the management and regulation of mining activities in the seabed area beyond national jurisdictions, known as "the Area" (ISA, 2024a). Although the ISA was created in part to protect the seafloor, its primary function is to be the agency that oversees and implements deep sea mining activities with focus on administering the resources of the Area, which covers 54% of the total area of the oceans in the world (ISA, 2024b).

The ISA is a ‘young’ organization which is still finding its footing as it is attempting to navigate the politics of its somewhat contradictory objectives - protect the environment, regulate deep sea mining, and insure an equitable distribution of the ocean’s resources as the latter are considered to be “the common heritage of all mankind”. But ISA remains an obscure organization for most of the wider public. Our PhD student, Alex Teague is creating visual tools to make the organization’s functions more readily accessible. A challenging task when peering into a complex organization such as the ISA!

The image above shows the complexities of ISA’s structure in a glance - its organizational structure, in addition to outlining the specific responsibilities of each organ, how they fit within the organization, and how each relate to each other. The ISA is comprised of four principal organs: the Assembly, Council, Secretariat, and Enterprise, along with three Subsidiary organs: the Legal and Technical Commission, Finance Committee, and Economic and Planning Committee (ISA, 2024b). The Enterprise and the Economic and Planning Committee are the only organs that are not currently operational due to ongoing negotiations and discussions within the ISA (Willaert, 2021; Sun, 2023) and funding constrictions (Blanchard et al, 2023). Each organ and subsidiary organ focuses on different aspects related to the creation and implementation of regulations for deep sea mining, while operating under the guiding principles of the ISA to responsibly and equitably manage mineral resources while ensuring the protection of the environment for the benefit of mankind.

Cite this work: Teague, Alexandra (2024) International Seabed Authority Structure 2025. Available: miningthesea.net

References:

Blanchard, C., Harrould-Kolieb, E., Jones, E., & Taylor, M. L. (2023). The current status of deep-sea mining governance at the International Seabed Authority. Marine Policy, 147, 105396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2022.105396

International Seabed Authority. (2022a, March 17). About ISA - International Seabed Authority. https://www.isa.org.jm/about-isa/

International Seabed Authority. (2022b, March 17). Organs—International Seabed Authority. https://www.isa.org.jm/organs/

Sun, L. (2023). International Seabed Authority and Its Environmental Mandate. In International Environmental Obligations and Liabilities in Deep Seabed Mining (pp. 57–109). chapter, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Willaert, K. (2021). The Enterprise: State of affairs, challenges and way forward. Marine Policy, 131, 104590. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104590