[ Photo by Visit Greenland on Unsplash ]
Part of being a law librarian and professor on Foreign, Comparative and International Legal Research involves assuaging people’s interest in current events around the world. Personally, I call it the curse of current events. Instead of running away from it, I now take it as an opportunity to leverage that, at times, sudden interest in other parts of the world and further educate into the intricacies of this highly complex and ever changing research puzzle.
These days, Venezuela, Russia, Ukraine, Iran and Greenland are perfect examples of this sudden interest. However, Greenland differs from the others on this list in a crucial way. Greenland is not an independent country. Specifically, Greenland is a self-governing and autonomous territory part of the Kingdom of Denmark. When it comes to research, this is an incredibly important piece of information because it already tells you one research story: fragile sources of information will be scattered in multiple locations. Despite the plurality of sophisticated official political names, nothing screams “territory” more than the multiplicity of locations needed to pursue research on the place only to find mostly “fragile” sources at the end.
I believe most slaw readers would be interested in Legal Sources on Greenland. There are some well-known sources with sections on the autonomous territory. Law Library of Congress, Globalex and also the World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) all have lists on both local and external sources pertaining primarily to legal information on the territory. If you’re looking for a starting place, I recommend the Law Library of Congress research guide to get yourself situated and consult legislative, executive as well as international sources connected to the territory’s legal system and culture. Globalex and WorldLII do provide some additional sources. In particular, Globalex provides some pivotal links to sources helping users to understand the complex legal structure, including applicable Danish law as well as international treaties.
These days, there seems to be an explosion of blog posts and reports coming from a myriad of think tanks and research centers from all over the world. Similar to other parts of the world, Greenland has become a spotlight in international current events, and therefore a subject to write about. In my previous posts, I have talked about taking five steps back when researching a topic or place because there is an interest to respond to a current event. Something might be recent or novel to you as an external researcher. However, for the people on the ground living the “current event” as their own reality, there is nothing new about it and most of the time, it becomes yet another cycle reviving previous iterations of similar conversations going absolutely nowhere.
In that vein, let me show you a few I’d recommend to include in your reading list on Greenland. The first one is The Arctic Institute (TAI) – Center for Circumpolar Security Studies. Founded in 2011, TAI is relatively new in the Arctic scholarship scene. However, its Board of Members as well as their numerous affiliated scholars, researchers and experts from all over the world have contributed to its reputable standing and influential scholarship, making it an undisputable source for Arctic analysis. As you can see from its website, it is incredibly active in terms of producing analysis and reports on current events as well as their connections with scholarly conversations. Others that I will recommend include: Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland, Polar Research and Polar Initiative, University of Alaska’s Center for Arctic Policy Studies, and the Fridtjof Nansen Institute.
In Canada, you have two extraordinary research centres studying and analyzing the region. The first one is the University of Calgary’s Arctic Institute of North America. This institute is incredibly well-known regionally and internationally for its scholarship impact as well as projects on the ground. It also publishes the peer-reviewed journal Arctic, an important international journal on polar research. Pour les francophones qui me lisent, je vous suggère le Centre d’Etudes Nordiques (CEN) à l’Université de Laval. Le CEN est connu pour sa gamme de projets dans la région comprenant le changement climatique, l’aménagement de ressources naturelles mais aussi la santé et le bien-être des populations autochtones. L’approche multidisciplinaire et collaborative est devenue un atout majeur pour tous les domaines représentés dans le Centre.
When it comes to territories, it’s important that we all make an effort to search and listen to local sources and voices which can provide insightful and valuable information not found anywhere else. I want to define “local” as anyone living in the territory, and also people with personal connections such as parents or families originally from the place and even other people who have spent significant periods of time living in the territory and even speak the local languages. In general, diaspora communities tend to fill an important void in how territories communicate and make their voices heard outside of the territories. Therefore, I believe they are incredibly important to include within the concept of “local sources”.
Speaking of local sources, I would like to highlight three additional resources that are particularly valuable if you are interested in grounding your research in Greenlandic voices, culture, and primary knowledge production, beyond legal and policy-driven materials.
First, Natur.gl is an excellent gateway to understanding Greenland through the lens of its natural environment, conservation priorities, and scientific outreach. It provides essential context for many of the legal and policy debates surrounding Greenland today: fisheries management, mining, environmental protection, climate change, and sustainable development. For legal researchers, this kind of environmental and scientific background is indispensable when interpreting regulatory frameworks or legislative choices affecting land, sea, and resources.
Second, the University of Greenland (Ilisimatusarfik) offers an invaluable multimedia portal through its Watch & Listen platform. This resource gives direct access to lectures, talks, interviews, and public discussions featuring Greenlandic scholars and students. In a research ecosystem where English-language written sources are limited, these audiovisual materials provide rare and powerful insight into how issues are framed locally, in Greenlandic and Danish academic and cultural contexts. For comparative and foreign law researchers, this is an extraordinary opportunity to encounter Greenlandic legal, social, and political thought as it is articulated from within.
Finally, I strongly recommend consulting the long-standing academic series Meddelelser om Grønland, published by the Museum Tusculanum Press. This collection, which spans over a century of scholarship, represents one of the most important bodies of knowledge ever produced on Greenland. Covering everything from anthropology and linguistics to geology, law, and social organization, it allows researchers to situate contemporary debates within a much deeper historical and scientific continuum. Too often, Greenland appears in legal or geopolitical discourse as if it were a newly “discovered” object of interest; this series is a powerful reminder that Greenland has long been studied, lived, governed, and theorized in its own right.
Together, these three resources remind us that researching Greenland cannot be reduced to following current events or policy headlines. It requires sustained engagement with local knowledge production, environmental realities, and historical scholarship. For those of us working in foreign, comparative, and international legal research, this means resisting the temptation of shortcut research and instead embracing the complexity, depth, and plurality of Greenland.
In doing so, we move closer not only to better research, but also to a more respectful and accurate understanding of Greenland on its own terms. This blog post does not attempt to be exhaustive. If you would like to share other important sources with the readers, please do add them to the comments.
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