Bankruptcy

International Law Must Adapt to Rising Seas

By mcbride

Rising seas, global warming, climate change…while these issues are debated in the US, in one nation made up of islands, it is a very real issue, with both practical and legal implications.  Specifically, the Marshall Islands are being absorbed into the sea, dues to rising sea levels.  This fact raises a host of legal issues.  In this situation, there is no legal precedent to follow when a nation is absorbed into a rising sea.  

“Nations have faded into history through secession ? recently with the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, for example ? or through conquest or ceding their territory to other countries.

But ‘no country has ever physically disappeared, and it’s a real void in the law,’ Gerrard said during an interview in New York.

The U.N. network of climate scientists projects that seas, expanding from heat and from the runoff of melting land ice, may rise by up to 1.94 feet by 2100, swamping much of the scarce land of coral atolls.

But the islands may become uninhabitable long before waves wash over them, because of the saline contamination of water supplies and ruining of crops, and because warming is expected to produce more threatening tropical storms.

‘If a country like Tuvalu or Kiribati were to become uninhabitable, would the people be stateless? What’s their position in international law?’ asked Australian legal scholar Jane McAdam. ‘The short answer is, it depends. It’s complicated.’”

Here is a link to this interesting issue:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40534684/ns/us_news-environment/

Michael

Full post as published by Texas Lawyer Blog on December 06, 2010 (boomark / email).