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concerns over marine development (Varga 2014). Meanwhile, the federal government has started a
public comment period to gather experiences and learn the views of Aboriginal groups, federal,
provincial and territorial officials and industry stakeholders about the duty to consult to help Canada
improve the way the federal government manages consultation processes (Aboriginal Affairs and
Northern Development Canada 2014).
A multi-level governance setting can create the conditions for legal pluralism. This is the case in
regions where the devolution of power is granted to accommodate indigenous people rights. Under
the Act on Greenland Self-Government, a number of policy areas have been transferred from the
Kingdom of Denmark to the government of Greenland. The Act also lays down which matters can
be taken over by the Greenlandic authorities (Mortensen 2013). This is the case in the area of mineral
resources, which was taken over when the Self-Governmental Act was passed. As Greenland has been
granted self-government pursuant to the people’s right to self-determination, it is nevertheless a public
government. Anyone born in Greenland is considered a Greenlander.
The regulations related to mineral (including oil) resources do not contain any specific provision or
protection of indigenous rights: “With the authorities of the Greenland Self-Government having
assumed full responsibility for mineral resources, there is no longer any need to have special rules
concerning the right of indigenous peoples” (Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the
Environment 2011: 18). In Greenland, where the land cannot be considered an individual property,
this comes with some challenges. Aqqaluk Lynge, former President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council,
emphasised in 2009 the growing gulf between the political discourse of Greenland leaders and the
social and environmental realities (Lynge 2009). He invoked the founding texts of international law in
this area, starting with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (1965), and continuing to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples (2007) in order to hold the government to its duty to obtain a free agreement from the affected
communities concerning all initiatives and projects for development.
Offshore exploration can take place in areas where the hunters are of the opinion that customary
rights exist, areas with hunting or fishing rights held by specific individuals whose identity they know
thanks to oral accounts (Olsen 2014; Brøsted 1986). These customary rights have not been translated
into law and they are not accepted by the acts passed by the Greenlandic government. In addition, the
Western conception of land property relying on a strict delineation of a geographical area is at odds
with the traditional Inuit conception of ownership which is rather a user right and custodianship that
comes with social responsibilities, and is very often flexible depending on the resources move, e.g.
mammals or fish (Dahl 1998). Until Home Rule, management of the land followed customary rules
of the community, a situation that changed dramatically with the introduction of Home Rule, and a
centralised (Nuuk-based) authority disconnected from territorial social control (Dahl 1998).
Various legal orders are at stake in Greenland: the indigenous legal order (which is not necessarily
monolithic, and which is made of social norms and relies on a community-based control), and the
self-rule legal order which borrows some features both from a former colonial order (a centralised
authority) and from Inuit culture (no individual property). As Usher writes, “there is a crucial
distinction between common property in the state system and communal property in the indigenous
Governance of Arctic Offshore Oil & Gas Activities