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Charting the Course When International Law Is Fragmented
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 March 2022
Extract
If our work is future-oriented, problem-solving, and global in scope, we are all climate lawyers now. But, beyond widening the epistemic circle of climate lawyers, we must understand two things. First, the reach of climate change law into so many areas of international law requires an understanding of how these laws fit together—clashing, supporting, side-stepping, deferring, pulling rank. Second, we need to constantly ask how they should fit together, and for which beneficiaries. From the perspective of the fragmentation of international law, trade lawyers, environmental lawyers, and human rights lawyers can be said to be climate lawyers now, but convergence is neither the best explanation nor the best normative guidepost. We should strategically embrace law making and adjudication everywhere, but be conscious that our attention might be diverted to particular functional ends when issues of mitigation or adaptation are framed to suit the structural biases or vocabularies of particular regimes.
- Type
- We Are All Climate Lawyers Now
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- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The American Society of International Law.
References
1 Regime Interaction in International Law: Facing Fragmentation (Margaret A. Young ed., 2012); Margaret A. Young, Climate Change and Law: A Global Challenge for Legal Education, 40 U. Qld. L.J. (forthcoming) (2021).
2 Michael A. Mehling, Harro van Asselt, Kasturi Das, Susanne Droege & Cleo Verkuijl, Designing Border Carbon Adjustments for Enhanced Climate Action, 113 AJIL 433 (2019).
3 UN Secretary-General Press Release, End Fossil Fuel Subsidies, Bolster Funding for Renewable Energy Particularly in Africa, Secretary-General Tells Round Table on Clean Power Transition, SG/SM20530 (Jan. 11, 2021), at https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/sgsm20530.doc.htm; U.S. Exec. Ord. 14,008, 86 FR 7619 (Jan. 27, 2021), at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/02/01/2021-02177/tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad.
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5 Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Art. 2, para. 1(a), Dec. 12, 2015, TIAS No. 16-1104.
6 Id. Art. 4 (“so as to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century”).
7 “An obligation to adopt regulatory or administrative measures . . . and to enforce them is an obligation of conduct. Both parties are therefore called upon, under article 36 [of the Statute of the River Uruguay], to exercise due diligence in acting through the [Uruguay River] Commission for the necessary measures to preserve the ecological balance of the river.” Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Arg. v. Uru.), Judgment, 2010 ICJ Rep. 14, 77, para. 187 (Apr. 20).
8 Request for an Advisory Opinion Submitted by the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC) (Request for Advisory Opinion Submitted to the Tribunal), Advisory Opinion, 2015 ITLOS Rep. 4 (Apr. 2).
9 Towards a Global Pact for the Environment, UN Doc. A/RES/72/277 (May 14, 2018).
10 Maureen F. Tehan, Lee C. Godden, Margaret A. Young & Kirsty A. Gover, The Impact of Climate Change Mitigation on Indigenous and Forest Communities: International, National and Local Law Perspectives on REDD+ (2018).