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The legal regime of the Arctic maritime areas has long remained on the backburner as far as the creation of multilateral agreements is concerned. The Arctic's inhospitable climate created natural barriers for the activities of man and limited the usefulness of available technology. At present, however, climate change seems to be responsible for a marked heating up, not only of the physical environment of the Arctic, but of the political tensions concerning the exact legal regime to be applied in the region. This Article will examine the present-day legal status of the Arctic. Since almost all territorial claims have been settled in the area, only Arctic water areas will retain our attention. And, within the multitude of possible offshore activities, this Article will focus solely on navigation. Part I discusses the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which seems to have finally become a generally accepted legal cornerstone for appreciating the legal status of these waters. Part II considers climate change in the Arctic and Part III elaborates on how this may impact the legal regime of navigation there. Subsequently, Part IV analyzes the vulnerability as well as the adaptive capacity of the 1982 Convention. Finally, Part V suggests how the existing legal system can better meet the new challenges climate change poses for Arctic water expanses.

Several countries have now adopted a national ocean policy. It is therefore interesting to have a closer look at these policies from a comparative perspective in order to disclose not only some of their similarities, but also their divergences. Separate contributions in this volume will address the Canadian and European approaches in some detail. The present contribution provides, with a thick brush, the general picture which frames these two case studies.

Canada and the European Union (EU) cooperate in four regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) applicable to areas of the North Atlantic. They include the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO), the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), and the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC). This contribution focuses on the role of Canada and the EU in two of the RFMOs dealing with straddling fish stocks, NAFO and NEAFC, through a three-part format. The first section highlights the well-known conflict between the EU and Canada over the setting of quotas within NAFO for Greenland halibut. The famous Estai incident involved the arrest by Canada of a Spanish trawler in the NAFO Regulatory Area outside Canada's 200 nautical mile (nm) fisheries zone. Spain's subsequent litigation against the European Commission and Council for agreeing to a lowered total allowable catch (TAC) for Greenland halibutis also described. The second section addresses two main dimensions of cooperation. Global instruments and initiatives guiding regional cooperation in the North Atlantic are first described. The complexities of cooperation in relation to fisheries at the EU level are then discussed, including competences on the external level and the European Community's (EC) role in regional fisheries organizations. The third section reviews four ongoing challenges in regional fisheries management: putting the precautionary approach into practice; implementing the ecosystem approach; reaching consensus on allocation criteria; and ensuring effective compliance and enforcement. The chapter concludes with some key questions raised for discussion at the Brussels Workshop on EU Canada Relations in Law of the Sea and Ocean Governance, 4-5 December 2008.