Legal Mechanisms for the Prevention of Emergencies in Navigation along the Northern Sea Route
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22150190 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Natalia Igorevna Mihailova (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 1-14 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Право и политика (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2454-0706 • E-ISSN: 2454-0706 |
| Publisher | Aurora Group, s.r.o (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.7256/2454-0706.2026.7.80917 |
| OpenAlex | W7167351004 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
The subject of the research is the set of legal mechanisms for the prevention of emergencies in navigation along the Northern Sea Route, considered as an element of ensuring the environmental safety of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation. The focus is placed on the rules of international and national law governing the authorization of vessels to navigate within the waters of the Northern Sea Route, requirements for the safety of Arctic shipping, hydrometeorological support, icebreaker escort and ice pilotage, environmental monitoring, emergency response preparedness, and the prevention of marine pollution. Particular importance is attached not only to formal compliance with established requirements, but also to the need for a preliminary legally significant assessment of the environmental risk of a specific voyage. The subject of the research also covers the relationship between transport, environmental, and administrative legal instruments, since the prevention of emergencies on the Northern Sea Route cannot be ensured solely by means of maritime law without taking into account the environmental specificity of the Arctic marine environment. The methodological basis of the research consists of formal legal, systemic-structural, comparative legal, risk-oriented, and doctrinal methods, which made it possible to comprehensively assess the current regulation and propose a model for assessing the environmental risk of a voyage. The scientific novelty of the research lies in substantiating the need to move from a model of formal authorization of a vessel to navigate along the Northern Sea Route to a model of preliminary legally significant assessment of the environmental risk of a specific voyage. In contrast to the current approach, under which environmental safety is largely presumed through compliance with navigational and technical requirements, it is proposed to consider environmental risk as an independent criterion for the admissibility of navigation. The conclusion is drawn that it would be advisable to include in the Rules of Navigation in the waters of the Northern Sea Route a separate section devoted to the assessment of the environmental risk of a voyage, including criteria such as the ice class and wear of the vessel, the nature of the cargo, the volume of fuel, the experience of the crew, the remoteness of response forces, ice conditions, and the environmental sensitivity of the area. The need to create a legally significant digital monitoring system is also substantiated; within such a system, the achievement of threshold risk values should entail a mandatory review of navigation conditions, route alteration, icebreaker escort, postponement of the voyage, or refusal to grant authorization
Arctic · Authorization · Enforcement · Environmental law · International law · Novelty · The arctic · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Stonefly species taxonomy and ecology · Transportation Systems and Logistics
| Highly cited | No |
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