Since core aspects of international law rely on the general stability of geographical conditions, sea-level rise may bring fundamental challenges and require profound re-examination of currently accepted paradigms of international law. This article briefly addresses three questions: first, are the prospects of sea-level rise already a real concern from the viewpoint of international law? Second, what is the relevance of this perspective for current international law? And third, how should international law in the future approach the phenomenon of sea-level rise?
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Paul Blanchon and John Shaw, ‘Reef Drowning during the Last Deglaciation: Evidence for Catastrophic Sea-level Rise and Ice-sheet Collapse’, Geology, vol. 23, 1995, 4–8; see also Michael J. O’Leary et al., ‘Ice Sheet Collapse Following a Prolonged Period of Stable Sea Level during the Last Interglacial’, Nature Geoscience, vol. 9, Sept. 2013, 796–800.
See especially David D. Caron, ‘When Law Makes Climate Change Worse: Rethinking the Law of Baselines in Light of a Rising Sea Level’, Ecology Law Quarterly, vol. 17, 1990, 621–653; David Freestone, ‘International Law and Sea Level Rise’, in Robin Churchill and David Freestone (eds), International Law and Global Climate Change (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1991), 109–125; and Alfred H. A. Soons, ‘The Effects of a Rising Sea Level on Maritime Limits and Boundaries’, Netherlands International Law Review, vol. 37, 1990, 207–232. See also Eric Bird and Victor Prescott, ‘Rising Global Sea Levels and National Maritime Claims’, Marine Policy Reports, vol. 1, 1989, 177–196. An updated overview of the international law literature on this issue is provided in the Final Report of the International Committee on Baselines under the International Law of the Sea (supra note 10), especially at 29–31.
See Daniel Bethlehem, ‘The End of Geography: The Changing Nature of the International System and the Challenge to International Law’, The European Journal of International Law, vol. 25, 2014, 9–24.
See especially Rosemary Rayfuse, ‘W(h)ither Tuvalu? International Law and Disappearing States’, University of New South Wales Faculty of Law Research Series, Paper 9, 2009 (based on a paper presented the International Symposium on Islands and Oceans, Tokyo, January 2009); Rayfuse, ‘International Law and Disappearing States: Maritime Zones and the Criteria for Statehood’, Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 41, 2011, 281–287; and Rayfuse, ‘Sea Level Rise and Maritime Zones: Preserving the Maritime Entitlements of “Disappearing” States’, in Michael B. Gerrard and Gregory E. Wannier (eds), Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of Rising Seas and a Changing Climate (Cambridge University Press, 2013), at 187–191.
Derek Wong, ‘Sovereignty Sunk? The Position of “Sinking States” at International Law’, Melbourne Journal of International Law, vol. 14, 2013, 346–391.
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Since core aspects of international law rely on the general stability of geographical conditions, sea-level rise may bring fundamental challenges and require profound re-examination of currently accepted paradigms of international law. This article briefly addresses three questions: first, are the prospects of sea-level rise already a real concern from the viewpoint of international law? Second, what is the relevance of this perspective for current international law? And third, how should international law in the future approach the phenomenon of sea-level rise?
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 993 | 237 | 18 |
Full Text Views | 300 | 29 | 3 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 284 | 71 | 6 |