International legal dimensions of the northern sea route

Abstract

The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the most important route of navigation in the Russian Arctic. While the NSR is navigable without icebreakers only for some months during Arctic summer, it is expected that due to climate change and the increasingly rapid melting of the ice in the Arctic, the NSR will become increasingly important for international shipping. Moreover, if global warming continues, the direct transpolar passage could be navigable by 2040.