The Chairs are highly qualified academics who serve as academic drivers in areas of relevance to the Arctic. As the leading scientist in their field, the Chairs implement and drive collaborative actions in research and education among UArctic members and Thematic Networks and build partnerships with the broader Arctic community.

The UArctic Chair in Arctic Legal Research and Education aims to promote Arctic law as an academic discipline and enhance interaction with other related fields, such as international law and international relations. In addition, the Chair seeks to create new scientific content and promote knowledge exchange with broader Arctic communities, including students, academics, and stakeholders, through building partnerships and collaboration. The Chair also serves as the strategic lead and advisor for the UArctic in the Arctic law and governance field. The Chair functions in close cooperation with several UArctic Thematic Networks, particularly the Thematic Network on Law, and commits to contributing to inter-disciplinary research and education.

Aims and objectives

  • Creating content for scientific knowledge in Arctic law, governance, and policies.
  • Producing educational materials in Arctic law and governance.
  • Organizing undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level teaching and training.
  • Networking and collaborating with scholars in Arctic law and governance.
  • Preparing research funding applications linked to the Chair’s scope.
  • Conducting outreach activities and dissemination of knowledge.
  • Organizing academic events for national and international audiences.

Associate Fellows

A set of Associate Fellows, young scholars in the field, help facilitate the Chair’s functions, whose roles are voluntary. However, they offer the Chair a consultative and advisory role in developing potential future programs and activities. The current Associate Fellows are:

  • Dr. Yuanyuan Ren, Post-doctoral Fellow, Hauser Global Fellow, School of Law, New York University, USA.
  • Mr. J. Miguel Roncero, International Relations Officer at European Commission, Brussels, Belgium.
  • Ms. Alessandra Cafà, Junior Researcher, T.M.C. Asser Instituut, Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands, Doctoral candidate, University of Lapland, Finland.
  • Dr. Adnan Dal, Research Assistant, Firat University, Turkey.
  • Ms. Insuk Kim, Scholar in Greenlandic culture & Web Editor at Visit Greenland.

Chair and Contact

  • The Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland hosts the Chair.
  • Prof. Kamrul Hossain serves as the current Chair for 2022-2026.

Projects

Related Institutions

The Arctic and the Third Pole both contain important elements of the cryosphere, the areas of the world that are defined by the near-permanent presence of water in a frozen state. However, these areas are facing significant decline as both regions are currently warming at several times the global average. The decline of the cryosphere will have complex and multiple effects that will differ widely across both regions. The melting of the Himalayan glaciers will for example have significant local and regional effects related to the provision and availability of water to a quarter of humanity, whereas the warming of the Arctic will also have a major global impact, for example through the large-scale release of methane from thawing permafrost, or the melt of the Greenland ice sheet, which could lead to several meters of sea level rise. Yet, there is little knowledge about the commonalities, links, and differences between both Polar regions, as both are generally considered separately. The Inter-Polar Initiative seeks to contribute to remedying this deficiency by fostering inter-polar research and collaboration. The initiative explores how to adequately protect the constituent regions of the cryosphere from the perspectives of international law, science diplomacy, geopolitics, and science and technology studies.

Objectives:
  • To organize an annual inter-polar conference linking the Arctic with the Third Pole
  • To create a robust network of scholars interested in connecting the Arctic with the Third Pole
  • To learn about the climate change driven effects on the two Poles
  • To understand the differences and commonalities between the two poles
  • To explore the potential to study the Arctic and the Third Pole through the frame of the global cryosphere
  • To refocus traditional frames and perspectives on the Arctic and the Third Pole in light of current climatic and geopolitical changes
Topics to be covered:
  • The Arctic and the Third Pole:
    • how they are intertwined as a consequence of climate change?
    • local, regional and global governance approaches in light of climate change
    • climate intervention, climate action and social technology
  • Implications of climate change on:
    • society and culture: demography, transnational relationship, Indigenous and local people, local livelihoods
    • Human rights and human security: water security, food security
    • environment and nature conservations, including biodiversity
    • economy and human activities, and national, regional, transnational actors as interest groups
Scholars associated
  • Kamrul Hossain, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
  • Albert van Wijngaarden, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
  • Marco Volpe, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland.
Last updated: 19.11.2025