Navigating the coherence of sea ice

Ice breaking by ships can cause irreparable harm to the ecologies and cultures of northern regions. This chapter revolves around a central question: what are the barriers preventing the development of a legal mechanism to limit this act of environmental violence? The chapter suggests that the central barrier is not so much legal as it is ontological: foundational conceptions of space that underpin Western legal institutions are unable to value the form of water, reducing it instead to an ed space that is used for movement or resource extraction. This chapter demonstrates how a consideration of the environmental violence of ice breaking requires us to challenge underlying ideas about the various surfaces, volumes, structures, and movements of ocean-space that are inherent in Western conceptions of mobility, time, and territory. By looking beyond the ocean’s seemingly formless liquidity, this chapter explores how thinking from an oceanic perspective can challenge the limits of law, and how an inquiry that directly interrogates legal norms and institutions can reveal gaps in our understanding and governance of the ocean

Navigating the Structural Coherence of Sea Life

Ice breaking by ships can cause irreparable harm to the ecologies and cultures of northern regions. This chapter revolves around a central question: what are the barriers preventing the development of a legal mechanism to limit this act of environmental violence? The chapter suggests that the central barrier is not so much legal as it is ontological: foundational conceptions of space that underpin Western legal institutions are unable to value the form of water, reducing it instead to an ed space that is used for movement or resource extraction. This chapter demonstrates how a consideration of the environmental violence of ice breaking requires us to challenge underlying ideas about the various surfaces, volumes, structures, and movements of ocean-space that are inherent in Western conceptions of mobility, time, and territory. By looking beyond the ocean’s seemingly formless liquidity, this chapter explores how thinking from an oceanic perspective can challenge the limits of law, and how an inquiry that directly interrogates legal norms and institutions can reveal gaps in our understanding and governance of the ocean

Arctic Energy Cooperation

The Arctic – with almost a third of the world’s remaining natural gas and thirteen percent of its oil – is one of the globe’s last frontiers for competition over unexplored natural resources. The rapid pace of Arctic melting due to climate change has created opportunities to extract the region’s previously inaccessible offshore oil and gas. The 2015 controversy over the Obama Administration’s approval of Shell Oil’s drilling in the Chukchi Sea followed by the company’s decision to pull out highlighted the need for clear and effective regulation of Arctic drilling. Offshore oil spills are difficult to prevent and clean up, as showcased by the BP Deepwater Horizon accident – which occurred in an environment not plagued by Arctic ice and weather extremes. The complexity and fragmentation of existing governance arrangements further complicate matters. Numerous public and private entities are currently developing standards for Arctic drilling and spill response as new projects and accidents highlight the urgency of addressing risks.This Article makes a novel proposal for addressing these challenges through what it terms “hybrid cooperation.” In this form of cooperation, diverse public and private stakeholders at multiple governmental levels coordinate their efforts through either: (1) creating institutions or (2) integrating each other’s standards in agreements and regulations. The Article uses original case studies to assess the possibilities for hybrid cooperation to make Arctic drilling safer and to create more cohesive governance. It argues that this convergence of standards and stakeholders, while piecemeal, helps to develop norms for how to operate in the Arctic. More broadly, this concept of hybrid cooperation – which draws from and contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship on hybrid governance – can shed light on governance challenges in other areas, such as humanitarian crisis management, transnational investment, climate change, and whaling