Polar Law as a Burgeoning Discipline

As an introduction to the Handbook of Polar Law, first, this chapter discusses the emergence of polar law and reviews the development of polar law as a burgeoning discipline. This chapter then highlights four principal features of the Handbook: the Arctic-Antarctic interface; the interaction of global, regional, domestic and Indigenous legal regimes; the rights of Indigenous Peoples; and private law as part of polar law. Furthermore, this chapter considers polar law in a global perspective, focusing particularly on the importance of a legal order in the polar regions, the implications of climate change for the polar regions, the diversity of actors and global tensions – in particular, the Russian aggression on Ukraine. Finally, this chapter outlines the structure of the Handbook.