This book discusses the role of international law in supporting the collective pooling and management of plant genetic resources. It focuses particularly on the functioning of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. It provides an in-depth analysis, extending to 19 chapters. The first part of the book sets the scene by describing countries' interdependence in the use of plant genetic resources and the imperative for international cooperation in the use of these resources. This section includes discussions of the importance of internationally sourced genetic material in recent developments in crop breeding, the significance of international exchanges of crop and forage genetic resources in efforts to address problems associated with climate change, and changing rates of acquisition of plant genetic resources by international gene banks. These chapters are followed by section that focuses in detail on the International Treaty's multilateral system for access and benefit sharing. It begins with a history of the negotiations that eventually led to the Treaty being agreed, beginning with international and technical discussions ranging back to the 1950s and moving through the political negotiations that led to the creation of the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources and on to the negotiation of the Treaty itself, all framed within a description of the scientific and political developments that created the context for the negotiations. This is followed by a description of the design and mechanics of the multilateral system itself, presented in the form of answers to basic questions: What is the legal basis of the system? How does access work? How does benefit sharing work? Who maintains the system? and so on. A further chapter considers the Treaty's Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) in more detail, focusing in particular on the way in which the SMTA, unlike normal material transfer agreements, not only establishes the rights and obligations of the contracting parties (in this case the provider and recipient of the genetic material), but serves the interests of the multilateral system itself (i.e. ensuring that benefits flow into the multilateral system and can then be passed on to farmers in support of the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources). A further chapter considers the scope of the multilateral system, i.e. what material is and is not covered by the system. It focuses in particular on what is meant by the phrase “under the management and control of the Contracting Parties and in the public domain” (particularly the question of the “public domain”, which it is concluded should be understood in the context of intellectual property rights). The section concludes with an overview of efforts made to get the multilateral system “up and running”, i.e. a review of activities coordinated by the Secretariat of the Treaty. The third section (approximately the whole second half of the book) is devoted to “critical reflections”. These include a number of chapters that, from various perspectives, reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the Treaty, review progress made in its implementation and discuss the various challenges involved. Again in this section, the broad overview chapters are complemented by those that address more specific topics. The latter include discussions of the “moving scope of Annex 1” (i.e. history of negotiations relating to the scope of the list of crops covered by the multilateral system); the challenge of building a global information system to support the Treaty (i.e. the development, in line with the Treaty's Article 17, of a system to facilitate the exchange of information on scientific, technical and environmental matters related to plant genetic resources, and to serve as an early warning system for hazards threatening these resources); the roles of the centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research in overcoming problems associated with collective action related to the multilateral system; international and regional cooperation in the implementation of the Treaty; the place of the Treaty in the evolving global system for the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources; and the question of “institutionalizing global genetic resources commons for food and agriculture” (including a discussion of emerging theories related to the evolving global commons in plant genetic resources – and touching also on the differences between the plant sector and the microorganism and animal sectors with respect to the exchange and use of genetic material).