Programme - Fifth Polar Law Symposium 2012

This is a final version of the programme subject to only minor last minute changes.


Download the Final PLS5 Programme in PDF


Venue: Arktikum building, Pohjoisranta 4, 96200 Rovaniemi


THURSDAY 6TH

8.00 Registration (Arktikum - Main Hall behind the glass door - ticket sales area)

9.30-10.00 Welcoming words (Venue: Polarium, Arktikum)

Mr. Matti Ansala, Deputy Mayor, City of Rovaniemi
Rector Mauri Ylä-Kotola, Rector of the University of Lapland
Professor Paula Kankaanpää, Director of the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
Professor Timo Koivurova, Director of NIEM, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland

1. Opening (Venue: Polarium)

10.00 - 10.30
HE Anton Vasiliev, Ambassador-at-Large, Senior Arctic Official, Russian Federation
"Russia's Perspectives on Cooperation in the Arctic."

Tony Penikett, Former Premier of Yukon, Canada
"Destiny or Dream: Nunavut Devolution, sharing resources revenues, jurisdiction and political power?"

10.30 –11.00 Break

2. International Law (Chair: Professor Timo Koivurova) (Venue: Polarium)

11.00 - 12.00
Keynote: The Polar Regions and the Development of International Law: Contemporary reflections and Twenty-First Century challenges”
Donald R. Rothwell, Australian National University

12.00 – 13.30 Lunch

I PANEL SESSION
13.30 – 15.00

A. Constitutional law (Chair: Prof. Gudmundur Alfredsson) (Venue: Polarium)

1. The positive constitutional legal responsibility of the state for the use and protection of natural resources as bases of life and activity of the indigenous minorities living in the respective territory of Russia.
Ilina Olga
2. Uranium Mining in Nunavut – Who’s Watching the Watchdog?
Katja Göcke
3. Making of a Modern Constitution: The Danish Constitutional Heritage in the West-Nordic Countries
Agust Thor Arnason

B. Managing the Changing Arctic environment and its resources
(Chair: Prof. Timo Koivurova, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland) (Venue: Auditorium)

1. How much diligence is due? The no-harm principle and offshore hydrocarbon exploitation in the High North
Rachael Lorna Johnstone
2. Impact assessments in Greenland
Bent Ole Gram Mortensen
3. Impact assessment and benefit agreements in Arctic energy development: formalisation of emerging practices
Hannah Strauss
4. The Northern Sea Route: Shipping Season 2011
Erik Franckx
5. Nunavut, Greenland and the politics of resource revenues
Anthony Speca

C. Managing whales and seals or protecting them?
(Chair Dr. Leena Heinämäki, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland) (Venue: Classroom)

1. Indigenous Peoples, Whales and International Law - A Never-ending Story?
Martin Mennecke
2. The Gordian Knot of Whaling: To Untangle or to Cut?
Malgosia Fitzmaurice
3.The impact of the EU ban on Seal products on Inuit people: an EU concern?
Dorothée Cambou
4.Fur and Loathing – The European Union and the commercial Seal Hunt in the Arctic
Nikolas Sellheim

15.00-15.30 Coffee break

II PANEL SESSION
15.30-17.00

D. The European Union and the Arctic
(Chair: Prof. Hans Corell) (Venue: Polarium)

1. Setting aside differences? The apparent conflicts which legitimise the EU’s energy and environmental strategies and their implications for the Arctic region.
Michael Laiho
2. European Union and Climate Change in the Arctic
Małgorzata Śmieszek
3. Implementation of EU Immigration Policy in the Euro-Arctic
Nafisa Yeasmin
4. The Fisheries Protection Zone Around Svalbard and the European Union Members' Position
Marta Sobrido

E. Regulating shipping in the Arctic
(Chair: Prof. Erik Franckx) (Venue: Auditorium)

1. An International Polar Code for Navigation: Consequences and Opportunities for the Arctic
Andrea Scassola
2. The Polar Code: A test case for Arctic Oceans Governance
Rosemary Rayfuse
3. Optimized port state jurisdiction for the Arctic
Laura Boone
4. Unilateral behavior in the Arctic region – the case of UNCLOS, Article 234
Jan Solski

F. Enhancing the prospects for better environmental and safety management in the polar regions
(Chair: Prof. Kees Bastmeijer) (Venue: Classroom)

1. Environmental information – how to balance the role of different sources against each other in legal decision-making
Kai Kokko
2. Protecting Sub-Antarctica via the World Heritage Convention: Recent Development
Simon Marsden
3. Development of International Environmental Law in the Changing North
Md Waliul Hasanat
4. Knowledge-to-action question in strategic planning, case regional climate change strategy of Lapland, Finland
Ilona Mettiäinen
5. Problems of the legal bases of environmental safety of the Arctic
Alexandra Ivanova

19.00 Reception hosted by the City of Rovaniemi at the City Hall, Hallituskatu 7
Host: Mr. Matti Ansala, Deputy Mayor, City of Rovaniemi

FRIDAY 7TH

3. Geopolitics (Chair: Professor Timo Koivurova) (Venue: Polarium)

9.00-10.00
Keynote: "The Sediments of Time: History and Geopolitics in the Arctic"
Charles Emmerson, Chatham House

The keynote will be followed by short presentations by Timo Koivurova and Lassi Heininen of the relationship between geopolitics and international law

10.00-10.30 Break

III. PANEL SESSION
10.30-12.00

G. Climate change, security and geopolitics in the polar regions (Chair: Prof. Monica Tennberg)
(Venue: Polarium)

1. Northern Europe and the Arctic Agenda: roles of Nordic and other Sub-regional Organization
Alyson JK Bailes and Kristmundur Þór Ólafsson
2. Arctic regionalism – vision or reality?
Michał Łuszczuk
3. The natural prolongation concept after the judgment in the dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Bjarni Már Magnússon
4. Managing fisheries in a changing climate
Sébastien Duyck

H. New approaches to Arctic governance (Chair: Dr. Tanja Joona) (Venue: Auditorium)

1. Using Human Rights to Improve Arctic Governance
Rebecca M. Bratspies
2. Challenges to the elderly population in the Arctic: A human rights perspective
Shahnaj Begum
3. The Alaskan Arctic: A Case Study in the Design of Process and Law Supporting
Ecosystem-Based Multi-Use Ocean Management
Jessica Lefevre

12.00 – 13.30 Lunch

IV. PANEL SESSION
13.30 – 15.00

I. Changing Economies in the North (Chair: Prof. Betsy Baker) (Venue: Polarium)

1. Political economy of the Barents Euro-Arctic Region: A biopolitical reading
Monica Tennberg
2. The Svalbard Treaty and limits to the Norwegian jurisdiction with regard to marine affairs, with a special emphasis on the fisheries and offshore activity
Ørebech Peter
3. Assessing Soviet/Russian state and business interests in the marine border negotiations with Norway
Nadezhda Filimonova
4. The welfare consequences of the regulatory framework on biofuel in the North
Stefan Walter
5. The aspect of sustainability in the ´Comprehensive Plan for Electric Energy in the Faroe Islands´ of 2011
Stefan Holitschke

J. Policy actors inside and outside of the Arctic: their perspectives to Arctic development
(Chair: Prof. Malgosia Fitzmaurice) (Venue: Auditorium)

1. Inuit and Marine Management Issues in Canada’s Eastern Arctic.
Natalia Loukacheva
2. Iceland: a small Arctic state facing big Arctic changes
Margret Cela
3. Oriental Dragon Winds to the Arctic, Not Just the Game of Power Struggle
Lu Fei
4. Risk management implications of the exploration of the Arctic resources
Alena Ingvarsdóttir
5. Japan and the Arctic
Fujio Ohnishi

K. International governance in the polar regions
(Chair Prof. Rosemary Rayfuse) (Venue: Classroom)

1. International organizations in the Polar regions. Norden and Europe. Nordicization versus Europeanization processes
Agnieszka Wójcicka
2. The role and potential of the Arctic Council in regulating and governing marine shipping in the Arctic
Piotr Graczyk
3. Regulating Antarctic Tourism: A Gap Analysis
Kees Bastmeijer
4. More holistic human rights language and rights-based approach in the Arctic governance? Possibilities, risks and divergent discourses beyond indigenous rights
Adam Stępień

15.00 – 15.30 Break

15.30 -17.00
APECS meeting (Association of Polar Early Carrier Scientists) (Venue: Auditorium)
'How to communicate complex research findings to the public and policy-makers?'
Speakers: Lassi Heininen and Charles Emmerson
Information about APECS: http://apecs.is/

18.00 Departure to Loma-Vietonen, 64 km from Rovaniemi. See at: http://www.lomavietonen.com/en/
19.00 Dinner at Loma-Vietonen (starting with a short speech by Mr. Kaj Hellsten, Kemijoki Oy)
21.00-23.00 Sauna, swimming
23.00 Bus back to Rovaniemi

!!! Please note that although we will be at the hotel around midnight, we will start the Saturday session only at 10 am !!!

SATURDAY 8TH

4. Indigenous Peoples (Chair: Professor Timo Koivurova) (Venue: Polarium)

10.00-11.00
Keynote: Ethnicity, culture and power: The process of constructing the identity of the Sámi people in a Nordic and international context
Irja Seurujärvi-Kari , University of Helsinki

11:00 Closing words
Professor Timo Koivurova
Announcement for the Polar Law Yearbook Volume 5 and an invitation to the next Polar Law Symposium
Professor Gudmundur Alfredsson

11.15 -11.30 Break

V. PANEL SESSION
11.30-13.00

L. Indigenous governance in-between international and national law
(Chair: Agust Thor Arnason) (Venue: Polarium)

1. Enforcing indigenous people’s rights through voluntary guidelines in the Arctic: The example of Akwé: Kon Voluntary Guidelines
Antje Neumann
2. The Role of Canadian Indigenous Leaders in Creating the Arctic Council
Tom Axworthy
3. Settling Indigenous land claims: A common indigenous title?
Øyvind Ravna and Nigel Bankes

M. Indigenous rights and policy in the Russian North (Chair: Prof. Thora M. Herrmann)
(Venue: Auditorium)

1. The Status of Unrecognized Indigenous Communities and “Rural Old-Timers” in the Russian Arctic: Socio-Legal Analysis
Maxim Zadorin
2. Between transnational, national and local: Concept of Indigeneity in Russia
Anna Stammler-Gossmann
3. Legal aspects of industrial development on the territories of traditional land use in northeast Siberia
Aitalina Ivanova
4. Ethnological expertise in Russia: experience, problems and prospects
Anatoly Sleptsov
5. The Protection of linguistic rights of indigenous peoples within the Russian Federation
Elena Knyazeva

N. Legal rights of the Sami and their influence on others (Chair: Dr. Natalia Loukacheva)
(Venue: Classroom)

1. Cultural rights of the Sami
Juha Karhu
2. The Sámi reindeer herding in turmoil: the conflict between International Law and the national legislation in Finland
Antti Aikio
3. Revitalization of Ainu Culture and Protection of their Right of Culture: Learning from Nordic Saami Experience
Hiroshi Maruyama
4. Sami traditional knowledge and cultural heritage - offering rights or putting into a cage
Terhi Vuojala-Magga

13.00 – 14.30 Lunch

14.30 City-tour including the visit in the Santa Village, organized by the City of Rovaniemi
Afterward (until 18.00): Possibility to visit Arktikum exhibitions (Arctic Centre exhibition and the Provincial Museum of Lapland).