On the 24 December 2017 the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the previously postponed Resolution 74/249, International legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. This initiates formal negotiations of a new legally binding instrument, convening four intergovernmental conference sessions from 2018 to 2020.
For more information see the final text, released 19 January 2018, available here.
De Maribus 