Economic activities in the Arctic Ocean: Universal, Regional and National Regulation

The Arctic, as noted, may “turn out to be a laboratory for a new international legal regime”[1]. The Ilulissat declaration of the Arctic coastal states provides, however, that there is “no need to develop a new comprehensive international legal regime to govern the Arctic Ocean”[2]. Assessing the contemporary policy framework for the Arctic Ocean and relevant challenges for International Law, different opinions are suggested by international lawyers[3]. Even more complicated and mosaic are political assessments of the potential growth of economic activities in the Arctic Ocean in the context of Environmental Security[4]. In this paper, after reminding about legal definition of the Arctic Ocean, I will deal with the following issues: first, universal level of contemporary international regulation of economic activities in the Arctic Ocean; second, regional and bilateral levels of such regulation; third, relevant national legislation of the Arctic coastal states in force, with focus on the Russian perspective