Abstract
This book review considers Arctic Law and Governance: The Role of China and Finland, a new volume edited by Timo Koivurova, Tianbao Qin, Tapio Nykänen, and Sebastien Duyck. The book represents the culmination of a joint project between researchers from the University of Lapland, Finland and Wuhan University, China. In the volume, the Arctic policies of China, Finland, and the European Union are compared. Special attention is given to maritime sovereignty, science, marine conservation and management, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Svalbard Treaty, and the Arctic Council. Overall, the volume presents a rich, detailed account of China’s activities in the Arctic, though the chapters by the Chinese authors tend to be somewhat less analytical than those by the European contributors. The case for comparing China with Finland and the European Union is not always wholly convincing, but the reader is ultimately left with an understanding of how cooperation could arise in the Arctic between these three unlikely partners in two shared areas of interest: development of Arctic resources and transportation. Such work is valuable, for it demonstrates that the aims of Arctic and non-Arctic stakeholders are not necessarily at odds simply due to differences in geography.
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Notes
Linda Jakobson & Syong-Hong Lee, The North East Asian States’ Interests in the Arctic and Possible Cooperation with the Kingdom of Denmark, Stockholm: Stockholm Peace Research Institute (2013); Per-Erik Solli et al., Coming into the Cold: Asia's Arctic Interests, 36 Polar Geography 253–270 (2013), Mia M. Bennett, North by Northeast: Toward an Asian-Arctic Region, 55 Eurasian Geography and Economics 71–93, (2014), Aki Tonami, Asian Foreign Policy in a Changing Arctic: The Diplomacy of Economy and Science at New Frontiers (1st ed. 2016).
In overseeing the volume, the editors and authors draw on their substantial expertise regarding China, Finland, and the EU. Among the four editors, Timo Koivurova, Research Professor and Director of the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law at the University of Lapland, Finland, specializes in international polar law. Tianbao Qin, Professor of Law and Director of the Research Institute of Environmental Law at Wuhan University, contributes his knowledge of international environmental law. Tapio Nykänen, a University Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences in the University of Lapland. Finally, Sébastien Duyck, a doctoral candidate at the University of Lapland’s Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, adds his knowledge of the procedural rights of stakeholders in the international climate change regime – a topic especially germane in the Arctic, where stakeholders involve Arctic and non-Arctic states, and non-state actors like indigenous peoples' organizations and multinational corporations.
While the EU, like China, applied for observer status in 2009, its application has been disputed by Canada due to its objection to the EU’s ban on the trade in seal products, which provides an important livelihood for many indigenous peoples. An agreement between Canada and the EU in 2014 to allow the import of Inuit seal products helped amend matters. While the EU’s application may eventually be fully accepted, it remains an “observer-in-principle” for now.
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Mia M. Bennett—Doctoral Candidate.
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Bennett, M.M. Arctic Law and Governance: The Role of China and Finland (2017). Jindal Global Law Review 8, 111–116 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41020-017-0038-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41020-017-0038-y