Co-producing soft law and uncertain knowledge: biofuels and synthetic biology at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity

In this dissertation, I examine processes of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to develop international soft law on biofuels and synthetic biology. I ask how decision-making happens in the unique context of this treaty and on these issues, specifically looking to the role of knowledge politics. To do this, I first establish the cultures and legal structures that have developed within the CBD’s permanent bodies, identifying characteristics that have drawn criticism but that also have the potential to establish the CBD as a productive forum for examining emerging and uncertain technosciences. I then turn to the treaty’s engagement with biofuels and synthetic biology under its “New and Emerging Issues” mechanism. I identify three main ways knowledge politics have been expressed: setting the issue’s scope; establishing appropriate sources and types of knowledge for decision-making; and the meaning and implications of scientific uncertainties. I trace how the political, scientific, and administrative bodies of the treaty have grappled with each of these aspects, in the process providing a forum for consideration of the treaty’s scope, its legal epistemology, and its approach to decision-making in a post-predictive paradigm. Research methods include textual analysis, semi-structured interviews, participant observation of CBD negotiating events, and observant participation of treaty processes through an internship and consultancy with the CBD Secretariat on synthetic biology. This dissertation speaks to scholarship on global environmental governance and the governance of emerging technologies, expanding the concept of the co-production of law and science to include soft international law and a broad range of scientific uncertainties.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Deborah Ann Scot