During the last 30 years the concept of soft-law has emerged as a major issue in international law. It has induced controversial debates within the international legal community, given that the concept of law has traditionally operated in a binary fashion. Some perceive that soft-law is a useful means of cooperating internationally, as it allows early agreement on issues that individual states consider premature for legal regulations. On the other hand, international law has a hard time grasping what status the various soft-law cooperation forms and instruments should be accorded. This study focuses on northern innovative international soft-law forms of cooperation (i.e. the Arctic Council, Barents cooperation, Northern Forum) and examines how these can be evaluated from the international legal perspective as well as whether these have been beneficial for encountering the region’s challenges. The main focus of this dissertation is the Arctic Council – the region’s predominant international cooperation forum between states, indigenous peoples and other stakeholders. Specifically, how the Council has been able to tackle a multitude of on-going and future climate change impacts in the Arctic and how it could better function for the protection of the region’s vulnerable ecosystems and human communities.
