International Law - Achievement – About ArCS II | The Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II)

Designing Resilient International Legal Regimes for a Sustainable Arctic and the Contribution of Japan

Background and Objectives

This Research Program aims to research the "legal policy responses to international rule-making in the Arctic toward the realization of a sustainable society..." as stated in the Project Goal, and to provide its findings to stakeholders interested in the Arctic in an easy-to-understand manner. In particular, this Research Program has three Sub Programs in order to contribute to ensuring the Rule of Law in the Arctic, which is also an important pillar of Japan's Arctic Policy. The first is the international regimes promoting Arctic science cooperation, including the Arctic Council (AC) and the Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation signed in 2017 and entered into force in 2018. The second is a study into international law promoting sustainable use of the Arctic oceans, examining, for example, the Arctic sea routes and the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAOFA), signed in 2018 and entered into force in 2021. The third is an integrated study of relevant international laws contributing to Indigenous Peoples' rights and sustainable development of the Arctic.

At the start of 2020, there were hopes that the realization of Arctic governance based on the Rule of Law would be strengthened, as several agreements specific to the Arctic were concluded. However, Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and subsequent changes in the global geopolitical situation have exposed the fragility of international cooperation in the Arctic. This Research Program unexpectedly covered five years of turbulent Arctic governance, and was able to academically elucidate its strengths and weaknesses. In particular, the paper "Can We Continue to Cooperate with Russia in the Arctic?" (Koivurova and Shibata, 2023*), published in 2023, has received 7,000 views in just over a year since its release, illustrating the impact of the results of this Research Program. The international and systematic research network on Arctic international law and policy that has been established in the course of this research will be effectively utilized in the next Arctic research project.

Strategic Research Plan and Achievement of Numerical Goals

In order to achieve its final numerical goals, such as publishing 15 or more academic papers, 2 or more books or special issues of journals, and 10 or more Briefing Paper Series (BPS) for stakeholders, the Research Program strategically planned a 5-year research plan, depending on the budget situation. As a result, all goals were achieved. Special Issues/Sections in journals were published in Polar Record on "Sustainability as an integrative principle: The role of international law in Arctic resource development" in December 2020; in The Yearbook of Polar Law on "The Arctic and the Contribution of ArCS II" in March 2023 (Fig.1); and in Polar Science on "Sustainable Development in the Arctic for Indigenous Peoples" (forthcoming).

In the first two years of our strategic research plan, we learned from the leading international Arctic law research abroad, and to this end, we held international symposia and seminars in Japan with international experts to build human networks and a foundation for joint research. In FY2022-2023, we presented our research results in international journals and conferences based on the academic findings obtained by using this research foundation, and exposed the quality of our research to international validation. Since that time, we have also created opportunities for social implementation of our research results by proactively creating opportunities for BPS and results reporting to stakeholders based on verified academic results. In FY2024, the final year of the project, we return to the starting point of this Research Program and reviewed the past 10 years of practice of Japan's Arctic policy. The result of this review was published as the final volume of BPS in both Japanese and English. As part of this process, this Research Program convened a Rovaniemi Workshop in September at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland, Finland. The Finnish Ambassador in charge of the Arctic was our guest speaker, congratulating the remarkable achievements of the Arctic governance research in Japan through ArCS II. Even in the midst of turbulent Arctic international politics, the Ambassador expressed the hope that Japan will continue its constructive involvement in the Arctic Council.

(Fig. 1) Special Section in Volume 14 of *The Yearbook of Polar Law* (2023)

Research Methodology (1): Use of high-profile international symposia

This Research Program utilized the annual Polar Law Symposium (PLS), which brings together Arctic international law and policy researchers, practitioners, and Indigenous representatives, and the Arctic Circle Assembly, the world's largest Arctic gathering, as opportunities to investigate cutting-edge research trends and stakeholder interests, build an international research network, and report and obtain feedback on our research findings. The Polar Law Symposium, hosted by Kobe University in November 2020 and November 2021, provided an excellent opportunity to introduce the research interests and approaches of the Research Program on International Law under this project. In the latter half of the research period, we utilized the PLS to showcase comprehensively our research results under this Research Program. At the Faroe Islands PLS in 2023, a total of seven researchers, including early career researchers, presented their research results. At a Östersund, Sweden PLS in 2024, a total of seven researchers, four female and one graduate student among them, presented their research.

In 2022 and 2023, three sessions proposed by this Research Program were adopted at the Arctic Circle Assembly, where more than 2,000 Arctic stakeholders gathered. We invited representatives of Arctic Indigenous representatives as panelists to present and discuss their research and demonstrate the breadth and depth of our country's Arctic governance research.

Research Methodology (2): Interdisciplinary Research and Involvement of Early Career Researchers

The research method of this Research Program is characterized by the active involvement of early career researchers and graduate students in interdisciplinary research linking the Research Programs on Ocean, Coastal Environments, Human Society, and International Relations. We also made conscious efforts to widely disseminate our research reports and discussions through online public seminars and to make the recorded videos on YouTube being permanently available for viewing. A good example is the November 2022 seminar entitled "The Future of Science Diplomacy in the Arctic: How Will Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Affect Arctic Science Cooperation? What can Japan do?" with a keynote speech by the Ambassador in charge of Arctic Affairs. Another example is the February 2023 online symposium "People Living in the Arctic and Climate Change," organized in collaboration with the Research Programs on Coastal Environments and Human Society.

It is important to provide easy-to-access opportunities for graduate students to experience the excitement of Arctic international law research. For this purpose, we sent seven Kobe University master's course graduate students to the Arctic Circle Assembly and to the Polar Law Symposium to present their research, both held in Reykjavik, Iceland, in October 2022. A Kobe University graduate student participated in the Rovaniemi Workshop mentioned above in September 2024 to engage in the discussion on a review of Japan's Arctic policy. Another example of active promotion of early career researchers is the dispatch of Kaito Suzuki, a doctoral student at McGill University, Canada, and Osamu Inagaki, a Kobe University researcher, to the Polar Law Symposium held in the Faroe Islands in 2023, where they presented their research.

Japan's Arctic Governance Research Capacity: Its Culmination Today

Japan's Arctic governance research capacity has improved significantly as a result of the continuous and systematic research on Arctic international law and policy over a total of 10 years from the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS) to this project. One of the best examples is the special issue of Polar News published in September 2023, entitled "Russia's Invasion of Ukraine and the Prospects for International Polar Cooperation." The Polar News is a magazine for the general public, and, precisely because of such nature of the magazine, the articles required concise and easy-to-understand drafting yet based on objective analysis and accurate information. This special issue examined comprehensively and in an integrated manner the Arctic Council, Arctic Indigenous Peoples, Arctic scientific cooperation, and the CAOFA in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. When ArCS started in 2015, this kind of research capacity to plan such a special issue and publish articles with such a speed could not have been imagined.

The second example is a project to publish in our Briefing Paper Series "Japan's Arctic Policy 2015-25: Suggestions for the Next Decade" in both English and Japanese. This project analyzes and evaluates the past decade of practices implemented by various Japanese actors involved in Japan's Arctic policy, and offers suggestions for the next decade. Under Chapter 1 "Engagement through Research and Development", the analysis covers the topics such as (1) Science and technology diplomacy, and (2) Arctic Council and other multilateral and bilateral cooperation frameworks; under Chapter 2 "Engagement through Rule of Law", (3) CAOFA, (4) Ensuring the rights of Arctic indigenous peoples, and (5) Protection of Arctic environment and ecosystem; under Chapter 3 "Sustainable Use", (6) Arctic sea routes, (7) Increased engagement of Japanese companies in Arctic economic activities, and (8) Innovative uses: tourism, science and technology innovation; under Chapter 4 “The Arctic: Historical power balance changes”, (8) Security environment, (9) Changes Arctic Council; and finally under Chapter 5 “Suggestions for the Next Decade". Without this project, we would not have had the research capacity to systematically address such comprehensive topics related to Arctic governance.

Summary

This Research Program has achieved its initial goal and established a research capability and institutional foundation in Japan, including early career researchers, capable of comprehensively analyzing Arctic governance. This Arctic legal and policy research asset can be passed on to the next generation.

* Koivurova, T., Shibata, A., 2023. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022: Can we still cooperate with Russia in the Arctic? Polar Record, 59, e12. doi: 10.1017/S0032247423000049.