For many years, concerns have been expressed about environmental issues in the Arctic. While the Arctic region, unlike Antarctica, has been inhabited for thousands of years, it is under unique threat because of its vulnerability toward resource exploitation and the deposition of various airborne pollutants. With its varied populations, and with eight Nations asserting territorial interests, the Arctic needs a careful approach to its protection and development. This report describes the current Arctic environmental legal regime. It also discusses the possibility of negotiating a sustainability treaty for the Arctic with high standards of environmental protection similar to those in the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. It is hoped that this review of the legal and policy contrasts between the Arctic and Antarctic can help in the consideration of future directions for the Arctic legal regime.

In Legal Regimes for Environmental Protection the editors offer important new insights into the legal questions on tackling climate change and the legal instruments available to address maritime environmental problems.

How can we best protect the polar marine environment against pollution? Leading scholars on environmental law, the law of the sea, and Arctic and Antarctic affairs here examine this important question. To what extent do existing global instruments of environmental protection apply to the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean? Can the arrangements adopted at regional, sub-regional and national levels provide adequate protection? This book examines and compares various levels of regulation in protecting the marine environment of the Arctic and Antarctic, with specific attention to land-based activities, radioactive waste dumping, and shipping in ice-covered waters. Developments since the establishment of the Arctic Council in 1996 and the entry into force of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty in 1998 are also discussed. This is a volume that will appeal to polar specialists and to all those interested in environmental law and policy.

This book examines the corpus of status quo environmental legal regime, geographical issues and redundant “stakeholder claims,” which persist in the Arctic. It examines multifarious theories relating not only to conflicting and opposing interests, but also to parties to whom the shipping industry should be accountable. The unique aspect of this book is the Corporate Social responsibility analysis pertaining to the Arctic and alternatives that strike a balance between the increased commercialization of the shipping industry and the laws and concepts of ocean governance. The book relevantly puts forward the concept of “ocean governance” and to what extent it can be addressed in terms of the Arctic. What distinguishes this book from others is the fact that it is not limited to examining the effects of climate change and how it is reshaping the way scholars assume the Arctic will be in the near future. Rather it creates a transparent nexus between opposing claims and increasing commercial interests and proceeds to scrutinize the efforts of the Arctic Council and individual Arctic coastal states. In this context, the book follows a given equation based on initial theories and how the opposing claims and increasing commercialization side of the equation can be balanced with the appropriate legal norm. It also reflects on the critical aspects of “hard law and soft law” which are two opposite ends of the legal pole and core elements of any legal spectrum. The book, after reflecting on those two elements, finally proposes a new Arctic legal regime, which is intricate and detailed and is basically a hierarchy based on logic and reasoning. In doing so, it imports a pristine theory for a pristine territory.

The Arctic is an increasingly important region faced with major challenges caused not only by the effects of climate change, but also by a growing interest in its living and non-living resources, its attraction as a new destination for tourism, and as a route for navigation. It is not only the eight Arctic States that have paid an increased level of attention to the region; several non-Arctic actors from Asia and Europe also seek to gain more influence in the High North. At the same time, the evolving law and policy architecture for the Arctic region has recently played a more prominent role in the political and academic debate. Unlike Antarctica, where the coherent Antarctic Treaty System governs international cooperation, the legal regime of Arctic affairs is based on public international law, domestic law, and 'soft law'. These three pillars intersect and interact making Arctic governance multi-faceted and highly complex. This book provides an analytical introduction, a chronology of legally relevant events, and a selection of essential materials covering a wide range of issues-eg delineation and delimitation of maritime boundaries, environmental protection, indigenous peoples' rights, shipping, and fisheries. Included are multilateral and bilateral treaties, UN documents, official statements, informal instruments, domestic laws, and diplomatic correspondence.

A review of international law in the polar regions and its importance to the environment and to international relations.