The Polar Law Symposium, which until now has been held in Akureyri, Iceland, will be held in Nuuk, Greenland in September 2011. The new venue should not come as a surprice as legal issues are prominent in the discourse on Greenland. The 2011 symposium will adress many of the hot topics regarding Polar Law, namely; Natural Resources, Constitutional Law Developments, Climate and Environment, in addition to Security Politics and Safety issues. Many of the leading experts on Polar Law will be attending the symposium, as well as young Polar scientists. The draft agenda for the 2011 sympsoium can be accessed here.

The University of Akureyri is offering the following studies in Polar Law: a 120 ECTS Master Programme leading to a M.A. degree; a 90 ECTS Master Programme leading to a LL.M. degree; a 60 ECTS study at the master level leading to a graduate diploma; a 60 ECTS study at the bachelor level leading to an undergraduate diploma; and individual courses in Polar law leading to a certificate.

The programme provides a unique focus on polar law. It comes about in a timely fashion, when climate changes are having a dramatic effect on the Arctic and Antarctic, when the opening of the new shipping routes is becoming probable, when current and potential boundary disputes on land and sea remain unresolved, when issues and questions of national and local governance are moving forward on national and international agendas, and, last but not least, when multiple threats to the environment are sending serious danger-signals and calling for urgent measures. One of the interesting areas of study to which this program can contribute concerns possible lessons that the legal regime for Antarctica could provide for solutions in the Arctic.

In the programme, emphasis is placed on areas of international and domestic law concerning the Polar regions. Issues of environmental law and biodiversity, human rights law, the law of the sea, the law of sustainable development and resources are addressed, including questions of sovereignty and boundary disputes on land and sea, the rights of indigenous peoples in the North, self-government and good governance, and land and resource claims in the Polar regions.

Courses are taught by Guðmundur Alfreðsson, Nigel Bankes (honorary doctor of the University of Akureyri), Niels Einarsson, Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Lauri Hannikainen, Tómas Heiðar, Lassi Heininen, Jon Haukur Ingimundarsson, Timo Koivurova, Joan Nymand Larsen, Natalia Loukacheva, Tavis Potts, Kári á Rógvi, Margrét Heinreksdóttir and other leading academics and practitioners in the field of Polar law.

The deadline for the submission of applications is April 1, 2011 for residents outside the EU/EEA.
June 5, 2011 for EU/EEA residents.