2 The “Sea-Level Rise in Relation to International Law”
Proposal at the International Law Commission
The ILC was established by the United Nations General Assembly, in 1947, to
undertake the mandate of the Assembly, under Article 13(1)(a) of the Charter of the
United Nations to “initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of . . .
encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification.”
The ILC has, over the past 70 years, carried out an impressive amount of work
regarding the most fundamental areas of international law such as the Law of
Treaties, the Law of State Responsibility, the Law of State Succession, etc. In its
early years, it also made a significant contribution regarding the Law of the Sea,
having produced the initial set of draft articles that later became the Geneva
Conventions of 1958 relating to the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, the
High Seas, the Continental Shelf and the Fishing and Conservation of the Living
Resources of the High Seas. More recently, and in areas relating to the protection of
the environment, it included in its agenda topics such as “Protection of the Atmosphere” and “Protection of the Environment in relation to Armed Conflicts”, which
work is still ongoing. There have been calls from within the ILC, from Member
States and also from academia for the ILC to take up topics not only from a more
traditional nature, but also that reflect new developments in International Law and
the pressing concerns of the international community as a whole. The topic of “Sealevel Rise in relation to International Law” falls neatly in that later category and thus
prompted a proposal to include the topic in the agenda of the ILC as explained
above, along the following lines.
7
Sea-level rise has become in recent years a subject of increasing importance for a
significant part of the international community—more than 70 States are or are likely
to be directly affected by sea-level rise, a group which represents more than one third
of the States of the international community. Indeed. this phenomenon is already
having an increasing impact upon many essential aspects of life for coastal areas, for
low-lying coastal States and small island States, and especially for their populations.
Another quite large number of States is likely to be indirectly affected (for instance,
by the displacement of people or the lack of access to resources). Sea-level rise has
become a global phenomenon and thus creates global problems, impacting on the
international community as a whole. The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of 2013 estimated that the global mean sea-level
rise is likely to be between 26 and 98 cm by the year 2100.
8 In 2015, in paragraph
14 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations General
Assembly recognized that: “Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our
time and its adverse impacts undermine the ability of all countries to achieve
sustainable development. Increases in global temperature, sea-level rise, ocean
7 ILC, Report on the Work of the Seventieth Session (2018), “Sea-Level Rise in relation to
International Law” (Annex B).
8 Stocker (2013).
8 Sea-Level Rise in Relation to International Law: A New Topic for the United. . .
147
Proposal at the International Law Commission
The ILC was established by the United Nations General Assembly, in 1947, to
undertake the mandate of the Assembly, under Article 13(1)(a) of the Charter of the
United Nations to “initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of . . .
encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification.”
The ILC has, over the past 70 years, carried out an impressive amount of work
regarding the most fundamental areas of international law such as the Law of
Treaties, the Law of State Responsibility, the Law of State Succession, etc. In its
early years, it also made a significant contribution regarding the Law of the Sea,
having produced the initial set of draft articles that later became the Geneva
Conventions of 1958 relating to the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, the
High Seas, the Continental Shelf and the Fishing and Conservation of the Living
Resources of the High Seas. More recently, and in areas relating to the protection of
the environment, it included in its agenda topics such as “Protection of the Atmosphere” and “Protection of the Environment in relation to Armed Conflicts”, which
work is still ongoing. There have been calls from within the ILC, from Member
States and also from academia for the ILC to take up topics not only from a more
traditional nature, but also that reflect new developments in International Law and
the pressing concerns of the international community as a whole. The topic of “Sealevel Rise in relation to International Law” falls neatly in that later category and thus
prompted a proposal to include the topic in the agenda of the ILC as explained
above, along the following lines.
7
Sea-level rise has become in recent years a subject of increasing importance for a
significant part of the international community—more than 70 States are or are likely
to be directly affected by sea-level rise, a group which represents more than one third
of the States of the international community. Indeed. this phenomenon is already
having an increasing impact upon many essential aspects of life for coastal areas, for
low-lying coastal States and small island States, and especially for their populations.
Another quite large number of States is likely to be indirectly affected (for instance,
by the displacement of people or the lack of access to resources). Sea-level rise has
become a global phenomenon and thus creates global problems, impacting on the
international community as a whole. The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of 2013 estimated that the global mean sea-level
rise is likely to be between 26 and 98 cm by the year 2100.
8 In 2015, in paragraph
14 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the United Nations General
Assembly recognized that: “Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our
time and its adverse impacts undermine the ability of all countries to achieve
sustainable development. Increases in global temperature, sea-level rise, ocean
7 ILC, Report on the Work of the Seventieth Session (2018), “Sea-Level Rise in relation to
International Law” (Annex B).
8 Stocker (2013).
8 Sea-Level Rise in Relation to International Law: A New Topic for the United. . .
147