Research On Regulating The Problems In The Arctic By Soft Law

With global warming, the abundant marine resources and commercialized navigable routes in Arctic have been the target coveted by countries all over the world. When the Russian scientific expedition team plugged their national flag made of titanium alloy on the North Pole in august,2007, the contention for the Arctic Area was instantly exposed in the sight of the whole world.The complicated situation of geopolitics in the Arctic Area and the multiple subjects of interest have determined the limitation of the application of international laws, especially hard laws such as international treaties in the Arctic. A good many soft laws, without obliging binding force, based on negotiation mechanism, are being applied in a wide range in the Arctic, which makes the Arctic an ideal example of application of soft laws.Besides Introduction and Conclusion, this paper includes4parts:The introduction explains the background and the status quo of the topic, the basic thoughts and standpoint of the research, the key questions to be solved, methodology and innovations.The first chapter introduces the related concepts of the Arctic Pole, elaborates the legal status of the Arctic and thereby analyzes the reasons why international community focus on the Arctic and expound the specific content of the Arctic issues.The second chapter analyzes objectively the difficulties and challenges confronted by present international hard laws such as international treaties, and then demonstrates the disadvantages of the application of current international hard laws mechanism to the Arctic issues.The third chapter elaborates on the basic theories related to international soft laws,. demonstrates the correspondence of soft laws and hard laws, on the basis of the analysis and comparison of the status of the regulations by soft laws and hard laws, and expounds the forms of soft laws regulation, and finally explains the indispensable role that soft law plays in regulating the conflict in the Arctic Area.The fourth chapter, from the perspective of soft law, provides the basic strategies and measures, which can be employed by China for participating in the Arctic affairs, with the consideration of the trend of development of the Arctic issues, to guarantee the state interest in the development and exploitation and the Arctic.