The article is devoted to the legal and socio-economic bases of activity in the Arctic. The purpose is to justify the benefits of a systematic approach to regulating the development of the Arctic zone. Achievement of the purpose is provided by solving the following tasks: the strategy and the legal framework of the regulatory impact on the development of the Arctic are analyzed; disclosed the system links of the emerging common space of the Arctic; identified modern trends and the main directions of regulatory activities in the Arctic. The method of teleological, political interpretation of legal documents, analysis of information in the media and scientific literature allowed the author to obtain original research results and justify the need for a systematic approach to the legal and socio-economic bases of activity in the Russian Arctic. The author convincingly demonstrated that the Arctic today is an integrative space for interaction of different subjects, proved the need to revise the regulatory approach