In his doctoral thesis Waliul Hasanat, Master of Laws (LLM), investigates northern innovative forms of international cooperation from the international legal perspective. The study focuses on Arctic Council and whether it has been beneficial for encountering the region's challenges.

The Arctic Council is a high level intergovernmental forum to provide a means for promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic states, with the involvement of the Arctic indigenous communities (permanent participants) and other Arctic inhabitants on common Arctic issues. Besides member states and permanent participants, observer status in the Arctic Council is open to non-arctic states, and to inter-governmental, inter-parliamentary and non-governmental organizations.

According to Waliul Hasanat, the local and regional governments should be more integrated into the work of the Arctic Council. In that way, the Arctic Council would be able to better conduct its essential task: to promote the cooperation between the Arctic states, indigenous people and other Arctic inhabitants, in particular issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

“Currently this is not the case, even if the region’s indigenous organizations are well represented in the Council”, Waliul Hasanat notes.

According to him, the direct and substantial participation by regional governments in the Arctic would enhance the possibility of the local governments to adapt to the climate change consequences in the region.

“Arctic Council is, for example, conducting important climate science, which would trickle down much more efficiently into the policies of regional governments if only their participation would be more direct in the Council.”

Furthermore, it will be essential to find synergies between all northern cooperation forms. Especially, the work of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Barents Regional Council and the Northern Forum – the latter being the international organization of northern sub-national or regional governments – should be more connected to the work of the Arctic Council.

“Even now, all of them have a common goal in a long-term view, that is, wellbeing of the region. By evaluating the operation of these organizations, the overlaps can be avoided, as well as scarce financial resources could be saved”, Hasanat points out.

The research takes a special focus on the status of soft law in international law, too.

Within international law, the term soft law refers to quasi-legal instruments which do not have legally binding force but which try to steer the actions of states and other organizations. The term covers such elements as declarations, statements, principles, guidelines, codes of conduct, codes of practice, and action plans. The Arctic Council is one example of the results of the soft law instruments: it was established by the Ottawa Declaration of 1996, not by legally binding international treaty.

“The soft law instruments are often used by states to test whether they are willing to move toward more demanding regulatory efforts. As a weak side, the cooperation may stay on that level when legally binding international treaties are not made. That is why it is crucial to keep studying the soft law cooperation from the viewpoint whether it is performed on the basis of good governance criteria, such as transparency and accountability”, Waliul Hasanat emphasizes.

The study, within the field of international law, includes four published articles, along with two different chapters: introduction and conclusion.

Information on the public examination of the doctoral thesis:
LLM Waliul Hasanat’s doctoral thesis Soft-law Cooperation in International Law: The Arctic Council’s Efforts to Address Climate Change will be publicly examined at the Faculty of Law, University of Lapland on Tuesday 4 September 2012 at noon in Lecture Hall 2 (street address: Yliopistonkatu 8, Rovaniemi). The opponent is Professor Betsy Baker from the Vermont Law School, USA, and the chair of examination is Research Professor Timo Koivurova from the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. Welcome!

Information on the doctoral candidate:
LLM Waliul Hasanat (born in 1969) studied LLB (Honours) and LLM at the University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. He has been conducting his doctoral research at the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law (NIEM), Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland since March 2005. Hasanat also held a four year as research student of the Arctic Doctoral Program Arktis. He has been teaching at the University of Rajshahi, Department of Law & Justice, since 1996.

His main research interests include soft law in international law, soft-law cooperation, the Arctic Council, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Barents Regional Council, the Northern Forum, climate change in the Arctic, environmental protection, regional climate policy, changes in the Circumpolar North, and the protection of minorities.

Further information:
Waliul Hasanat, tel. + 358 40 484 4279 or +358 400 826 671, waliul.hasanat(at)ulapland.fi
Press copies of the thesis and a photograph of the candidate are available at the University of Lapland, Communications and External Relations: tiedotus(at)ulapland.fi or tel. +358 40 571 1960

Publication information and sales:
Md Waliul Hasanat: Soft-law Cooperation in International Law: The Arctic Council’s Efforts to Address Climate Change. Acta Universitatis Lapponiensis 234. Lapland University Press: Rovaniemi 2012. ISBN 978-952-484-560-1. ISSN 0788-7604.

Orders can be placed at:
Academic and Art Bookshop Tila (University of Lapland, Main Library, address: Yliopistonkatu 8, Rovaniemi), tel. +358 40 821 4242, publications(at)ulapland.fi, order online at www.ulapland.fi/lup

ULapland/Communications/SV