Environmental Protection in the Arctic and Antarctic: Can the Polar Regimes Learn From Each Other?

The purpose of this article is to examine the differences and similarities between the polar governance systems, especially from the perspective of environmental protection, and analyse whether the two regimes can benefit from each other. Of particular interest here is whether the Arctic Council could benefit from the better-developed regime of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). Considerations of space require that the discussion proceed on a relatively general level and focus on the basic elements of the two regimes and the differences between them.