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Rayfuse, Rosemary --- "Coastal state jurisdiction and the Polar Code: a test case for Arctic Oceans governance?" [2014] ELECD 320; in Stephens, Tim; VanderZwaag, L. David (eds), "Polar Oceans Governance in an Era of Environmental Change" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014) 235

Book Title: Polar Oceans Governance in an Era of Environmental Change

Editor(s): Stephens, Tim; VanderZwaag, L. David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781955444

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Coastal state jurisdiction and the Polar Code: a test case for Arctic Oceans governance?

Author(s): Rayfuse, Rosemary

Number of pages: 18

Abstract/Description:

These are interesting times for the Arctic. It is widely recognized that the region is experiencing rapid (and somewhat unpredictable) transformation arising from the interactive forces of climate change and globalization; changes that are predicted to stress existing Arctic governance systems. Thus, a premium is now being put on efforts to devise new practices and governance regimes more appropriate to the 'new' Arctic. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the realm of Arctic Oceans governance, where the reality of receding ice cover has raised the spectre of rapidly increasing access by shipping to, and through, Arctic waters and concomitant concerns as to the adequacy of the international legal framework for the regulation of Arctic shipping. To address this new reality commentators have called for a number of approaches, ranging from a comprehensive Arctic treaty, to a framework agreement with protocols addressing specific sectoral issues, or a more limited treaty regime dealing only with the protection of the marine environment in that part of the central Arctic Ocean that lies beyond national jurisdiction. Others have argued, however, that pan-Arctic regimes are doomed to the scrap heap of intellectual fancy. Instead, they argue that what is needed - and indeed the best that can be expected - is a 'regime complex' consisting of 'an array of partially overlapping and non-hierarchical institutions governing a particular issue area', or 'a network of distinct elements dealing with relatively specific issues operating under different auspices and encompassing overlapping but not identical sets of members'.