The other Polar Code: subjectivity and the regulation of ships in Arctic waters

Julia Martha Gaunce is a PhD-candidate at the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea.

The subject of her research is international organizations and law-making, with a focus on the International Maritime Organization particularly with respect to the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (the Polar Code) using, among others, concepts of subjectivity.  

International organizations (IOs) contribute significantly to the development of international law and regulation, and yet the law of IOs is unsettled—this, while issues of in-/exclusiveness and distribution persist in international law, against the backdrop of comprehensive eco-degradation, climate change, and the disappearance of habitat.

Julia has an LLM in international treaty interpretation and the law of the sea, and an MA in performance art an theory. She is a non-practicing member of the Alberta Law Society, having practiced in areas including Canadian natural resource law and Canadian law in relation to Indigenous people(s). She is formerly the Humanities Editor at Broadview Press (Canada), and a fiction writer.

Gaunce, Julia Martha | UiT