Arctic legal regime

Arctic Legal Regime The Arctic region is a changing part of the world. Due to changing climate and shrinking area of ice, the opinions of Arctic countries are also changing. Previously the Arctic was seen as a frozen desert, but now it is seen as area of new opportunities. It is now possible to use the ocean for digging resources and utilising living resources, navigating through newly found maritime passages, therefore saving time and money when transporting products overseas. These changing conditions are also an important push to view Arctic legal regime in a new way and to improve it in order to avoid environmental catastrophes or geopolitical conflicts. The main goal of this research is to analyze the existing Arctic legal regime and to ascertain in what direction are the regulations going. This research also aims to answer which fields of regime raise the most problems and where it is mandatory to create new standards. The analysis is divided into three main fields of regime, that are most affected by the changing conditions. The first is maritime delimitation - examination of methods used for this process and the main points of existing or future conflicts. The second is environmental protection - different acts of law are analysed, much attention is provided for regional cooperation organisation The Arctic Council and native people contribution to the much needed legal regime. The third part is analysing the navigation problems, aiming to answer how the international law is regulating shipping and what specific challenges are faced in the Arctic region. Not to mention all the findings of the research, it is seen that the Antarctic Treaty System would not fit the Arctic region. They are both geographically and legally different regions. Sovereignty of coastal states play a key role in the Arctic, therefore the goal to transform the Arctic region to some sort of common heritage of mankind is impossible. As a result, the basis for the Arctic region are many universal international agreements and conventions, that regulate both maritime and environmental law