CECS Seminar Series Spring 2022

Greenland in the Danish Kingdom – Political and Legal Challenges and Paradoxes

Organizers: Senior Lecturer Mette Marie Stæhr Harder and Professor Ulla Neergaard, Centre for European and Comparative Legal Studies (CECS), Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen

Abstract: The Danish-Greenlandic relationship is complex: The two countries share government in some political areas but not in others, administrative practices are intertwined, and they are members of different international organizations. These are all among the factors, which set the stage for a peculiar legal reality. In addition, a renewed attention in the Danish and Greenlandic colonial history, and indigenous peoples’ rights have intensified the interest in the relationship. At the same time, Greenland is on the agenda of superpowers, foreign mining investors, and international climate actors. The international attention on the one hand and the wish by many in Greenland for further, future independence on the other, calls for a greater understanding of current political practices and the legal reality.

By analyzing the Greenlandic-Danish relations from various, however not exhaustive, perspectives, the seminars in this series seek to facilitate an intellectual conversation about some of the essential legal and political challenges and paradoxes of Greenland in the Danish Kingdom.

The initiative is founded at the research center CECS. Accordingly, primarily researchers from the Faculty of Law are involved in the series.

The seminars will take place in Meeting room 6B-4-04, Njalsgade 76, 4th floor, DK-Copenhagen S.

Programme

 25 April 2022, 14:30-16:00: “Greenland and the European Union”

• Hanna Eklund, Assistant Professor, CECS: “Colonialism and the EU Legal Order”
• Ulla Neergaard, Professor, CECS: “The Legal Relations between the EU, Greenland, and Denmark”

 3 May 2022, 14:00-16:00: “Representation and Legitimacy”

• Jens Heinrich: Head of the Greenland Representation in Denmark: "Greenland's representation in the Copenhagen diplomatic corps"
• Ulrik Pram Gad, Senior Researcher, Danish Institute for International Studies: ”Foreign Policy and Legitimacy’”
• Mette Marie Stæhr Harder, Senior Lecturer Karlstad University, and post doc, CECS, “Greenland and the Danish ‘Folketing’

 16 May 2022, 14:00-16:00: “Resources, Peoples, and Environment”

• Maria Ackrén, Associate Professor, Institute of Social Science, Economics & Journalism Ilisimatusarfik: “Natural resources management in Greenland”
• Miriam Cullen, Assistant Professor, CECS: “Climate Change and Human Rights in Greenland: Legal Challenges and Possibilities”

2 June 2022 , 14:00-18:00: “Legal Cultures and Public Administration”

• Lene Møller, PhD.-Candidate, Department of Law, Ilisimatusarfik: ”Original Legal Practices in Greenland”
• Hanne Petersen, Professor Emerita, CECS: “Legal Mixité & Greenland”
• Thomas Gammeltoft Hansen, Professor MSO, iCourts, University of Copenhagen: “The First Refugee in Greenland”
• Kristian Husted, Danish author and stage artist who works at the intersection between art, activism and documentalism

 14 June 2022, 14:30-16:00: “The Future Constitutional Arrangements”

• Natuk Lund Olsen, Head of Division, Government of Greenland, PhD: “Perspectives from Greenland”
• Helle Krunke, Professor & Sune Klinge, Assistant Professor, CECS: “The Constitutionalisation Process in Greenland”