Legal Regime of Navigation in the Russian - Arctic

(By A. Kolodkin, O. Kulistikova, E. Mohova, I. Mihkina ; INSROP Working Paper No. 147 – 1999, IV.3.1)

The present report considers the issues of the legal regime of navigation in the internal sea waters, territorial sea and exclusive economic zone of the Russian Arctic, legal issues of the continental shelf and also the issues of civil liability for the marine environment pollution due to navigation in the Arctic waters of the Russian Federation.

This report analyzes the Provisions of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the 1995 Federal Law “On the Continental Shelf of the Russian Federation”, the 1998 Federal Law “On the Internal Sea Waters, Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone”, the Draft Federal Law “On the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Russian Federation”, the Draft Federal Law “On the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation”, and other legislative and normative-legal acts of the Russian Federation.

The study done in the present report once again confirms that the process of creating and forming the system of legal regulation of navigation in the Arctic in contemporary conditions, as part of a separate subject of the State policy, brought about by special national interests in that region and by its specific features, is not completed, because there still exist enough gaps in the settlement of this issue and contradictions in the examined legislative and other legal acts relating to this issue.

Legislative and other legal acts adopted in recent years do not constitute a single whole system for the regulation of navigation in the Arctic.

It appears that the adoption of the Federal Laws “On the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation” and “On the Fundamentals of the State Regulation of the Socio-Economic Development of the North of the Russian Federation”, which are intended to consolidate legislatively basic provisions in the field of economy, social sphere, ecology, as well as in matters of science, military security, and international relations in that region, must define a certain orderliness of a unified system of legal regulation, reveal gaps and contradictions and help eliminate them.

Besides, it must be noted that the adoption of the Federal Law “On the Continental Shelf of the Russian Federation” in 1995 and “On the Internal Sea Waters, Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone” in 1998 and the coming adoption of the new Code of Merchant Shipping of the Russian Federation will partially eliminate the said drawbacks.

A. Kolodkin, O. Kulistikova, E. Mohova, I. Mihkina, 1999, Legal Regime of Nativation in the Russian - Arctic, INSROP.©