Betsy Baker is an international lawyer based in Alaska. Her work on ocean law and Arctic policy builds on 25+ years of experience as an author, consultant, law professor, and director of an Alaska-based marine science funding organization.
Baker's work informs policymakers nationally and internationally on issues ranging from offshore oil and gas regulation in the Arctic, to national sovereign rights in the continental shelf and international cooperation in the Arctic Ocean. She writes on related policy issues as a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center Polar Institute 2020-2022. Recent projects include studies for the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation; Alaska Arctic Policy Commission; the Inuit Circumpolar Council-Alaska; Statoil/Det Norske Veritas; the PAME working group of the Arctic Council; and the U.S. Department of State Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs. Baker's work has been covered by Newsweek, All Things Considered, Scientific American, Alaska Public Media, and the Wall Street Journal Europe. ___________________________________ Baker first worked in the U.S. Arctic as a member of the 2008 and 2009 bathymetric mapping cruises on USCGC Healy. She earned her BA at Northwestern University, JD at the University of Michigan, and masters and doctoral degrees in law at Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany following an Alexander von Humboldt Chancellor's Fellowship. See "About" to access Professor Baker's CV and faculty webpage at Vermont Law School.
Baker's hands-on experience connecting law, science, and policy includes directing the North Pacific Research Board (2016-2020), an Alaska-based marine science funding organization focused on fisheries management and ecosystem research; and serving as Visiting Scholar to the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Task Force at the U.S. Department of State (2012-2013). There, she coordinated the work of oceanographers, geologists, geographers and lawyers to produce key documents in support of U.S. sovereign rights to the extended continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from U.S. baselines. She also works to improve scientists' access for marine research in other jurisdictions, and to strengthen mechanisms for ensuring that decision makers have access to the best science possible. _____________________________________ Baker's appointed memberships to scientific advisory boards include: The Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) Science Steering Committee; The Polar Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences (2014-2020) and The Arctic Centre, U Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland, Scientific Advisory Board (emerita).
Recent PUBLICATIONS include: _________________________________________ Arctic Overlaps -- The Surprising Story of Continental Shelf Diplomacy, Polar Perspectives No. 3, November 2020, Wilson Center Polar Institute _________________________________________ "Resource Rights in the Continental Shelf and Beyond: Why the Law of the Sea Convention Matters to Mineral Law," Proceedings of the 64th Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute (2018) 2-1 to 2-31 (with Catherine Danley) _________________________________________ "ICES, PICES and the Arctic Council Task Force on Arctic Marine Cooperation: Lessons from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and the North Pacific Marine Science Organization", in University of California Irvine Law Review, vol. 6 (2016) 101-121 _________________________________________ _________________________________________ Recent PRESENTATIONS include: _________________________________________ Fish in the Central Arctic Ocean: How Will We Know?, 12th Polar Law Symposium, Hobart, Tasmania AUS, December 3, 2019 _________________________________________ Science for the Central Arctic Ocean: How to Support the Joint Program of Scientific Research and Monitoring under the 2018 Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement, Japan-US Science Collaboration Symposium, International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, March 4, 2019 _________________________________________
Not admitted to the practice of law in Alaska.