Foundational Principles for Polar International Law

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K12970
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: International law
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Shibata Akiho 神戸大学, 国際協力研究科, 教授 (00273954)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): MOTOYOSHI Yoichi 国立極地研究所, 研究教育系, 教授 (90211606) ; ENOMOTO Hiroyuki 国立極地研究所, 研究教育系, 教授 (00213562)
• Research Collaborator: ROTHWELL Ronald オーストラリア国立大学, 教授 ; KOIVUROVA Timo ラップランド大学, 教授 ; JOBOUR Julia タスマニア大学, 上級講師
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 国際法学 / 北極 / 海洋法 / 国際環境法 / 先住民

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The PI has put forward his theoretical framework for the comparative analysis on the Arctic and Antarctic legal orders in a peer-reviewed article in Yearbook of Polar Law in 2015. Based on the methodology of “international law from the field perspective” and with the personal experience of participating in the negotiation, the PI published three academic articles examining the 2017 Arctic Science Cooperation Agreement. The PI was the first lawyer in the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 2016-2017, and, based on his experience, he had made several academic presentations on the role of science in the effective implementation of the Antarctic Treaty System. All these research culminated in a forthcoming book in Japanese: The Emerging Legal Orders in the Arctic: Science, Environment and the Ocean (Toshindo, 2018). A follow-up international collaborative research project on the Antarctic Treaty System has started with researchers from Australia, New Zealand, Chile and China.

Free Research Field

国際法学