Marie Jacobsson is the Principal Legal Adviser on International Law at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. She was a Member of the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC) 2007-2016 and Special Rapporteur for the topic ‘Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts’. She is a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, a designated arbitrator under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, designated arbitrator under the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty and designated Alternate Arbitrator of the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE.

Ambassador Jacobsson’s work focuses on international peace and security matters. She has extensive experience of high-level multilateral and bilateral negotiations on such matters as international humanitarian law, law of the sea, polar law, international environmental law, boundary delimitation and regional security affairs.

She has a solid academic background and is Associate Professor of International Law at Lund University and holds a Doctor of Law from that University. The title of her thesis is “The Antarctic Treaty System – Erga Omnes or Inter Partes?”

Marie Jacobsson started her professional career as a desk officer responsible for the legal aspects of the polar regions and she has maintained an active interest in polar matters since then.

Research professor, Director of Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland.

Research professor Timo Koivurova has specialized in various aspects of international law applicable in the Arctic and Antarctic region. In 2002, Koivurova’s doctoral dissertation “Environmental impact assessment in the Arctic: a Study of International Legal Norms” was published by Ashgate. Increasingly, his research work addresses the interplay between different levels of environmental law, legal status of indigenous peoples, law of the sea in the Arctic waters, integrated maritime policy in the EU, the role of law in mitigating/adapting to climate change, the function and role of the Arctic Council in view of its future challenges and the possibilities for an Arctic treaty. He has been involved as an expert in several international processes globally and in the Arctic region and has published on the above-mentioned topics extensively.