Beyond Hans Island: The Canada–Denmark agreement's possible impact on mobility and continental shelves

Abstract

The governments of Canada and Denmark signed a historic agreement on Hans Island on 14 June 2022. Although most of the agreement was devoted to the resolution of the Hans Island dispute, it also settled other issues. We argue that provisions on mobility and the continental shelf in the Labrador Sea give rise to interesting precedents that could have far-reaching effects for northerners. The agreement on enhanced mobility could represent a first step in a more ambitious process of facilitating Inuit mobility across Nunavut and Greenland, while the settlement on the continental shelf illustrates how states could collaborate on other continental shelf cases, including the continental shelf in the Central Arctic Ocean.