The World Court on Law of the Sea and Statehood in the Context fo Climate Change-Related Sea-Level Rise

On July 23, 2025, the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) delivered its advisory opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Local weather Change (Advisory Opinion). This was the third advisory opinion on local weather change obligations issued by a global judicial physique, with the Worldwide Tribunal for the Regulation of the Sea (ITLOS) and the Inter-American Court docket of Human Rights every having rendered an advisory opinion on Could 21, 2024 and July 3, 2025 respectively. It was arguably additionally probably the most anticipated given the ICJ’s standing because the precept judicial organ of the United Nations, its standing as the one worldwide courtroom of a common character with common jurisdiction, in addition to the file degree of participation within the proceedings. The ICJ didn’t disappoint, rendering a unanimous opinion (a uncommon feat in itself) that’s anticipated to supply, as was the hope of the “core group” of nations (comprising Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Germany, Liechtenstein, Micronesia, Morocco, Mozambique, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Uganda, and Viet Nam) that tabled the UN Basic Meeting decision that requested the opinion authorized readability that can profit ongoing efforts to handle the local weather disaster and bolster cooperation and State conduct in addressing local weather change.

One space the place the Advisory Opinion could have materials impression within the close to future shall be local weather change-related sea-level rise. Sea-level rise is extensively thought to be posing the gravest of challenges to the survival and viability of low-lying coastal States and small island creating States (SIDS). For these nations, key considerations have included the lack of bodily territory from the impacts of sea-level rise probably having adversarial authorized implications on their maritime entitlements and statehood. The 1982 UN Conference on the Regulation of the Sea (UNCLOS), the structure for the oceans, typically supplies for maritime entitlements of a State to be established primarily based on its shoreline (see Aurescu and Oral, First Points Paper on Sea-Degree Rise in Relation to Worldwide Regulation, Worldwide Regulation Fee, pp.23-25). The commonly accepted standards for the creation of a State as a topic of worldwide legislation, as set out within the 1933 Montevideo Conference on the Rights and Duties of States, embody bodily territory (see Galvão Teles and Ruda Santolaria, Second Points Paper on Sea-Degree Rise in Relation to Worldwide Regulation, Worldwide Regulation Fee, p. 21). That stated, in the course of the negotiations of UNCLOS, local weather change-related sea-level rise was not perceived as a difficulty that needed to be addressed and, due to this fact, its impression on maritime entitlements was not addressed in UNCLOS (see Last Consolidated Report of the Co-Chairs of the Examine Group on Sea-Degree Rise in Relation to Worldwide Regulation, Worldwide Regulation Fee, pp. 96-97). The continuity of statehood was not a matter that was addressed within the Montevideo Conference (see Last Consolidated Report, p. 98).

In recent times, there have been concerted efforts to develop worldwide legislation in a fashion that will serve to handle the considerations of affected nations, with two key interpretations of worldwide legislation rising in assist of the preservation of maritime entitlements and continuity of statehood however lack of bodily territory as a result of sea-level rise. First, States are below no obligation to replace baselines, geographical coordinates or the outer limits of maritime zones, which have been deposited with the UN Secretary-Basic in accordance with the UNCLOS, to account for adjustments on account of local weather change-related sea-level rise. Second, statehood and sovereignty, and the upkeep of worldwide authorized character and membership of worldwide organizations, will proceed however the impacts of local weather change-related sea-level rise. These interpretations had been pushed for, most notably, by SIDS in political declarations issued by SIDS leaders in 2021 and 2024. These interpretations had been additionally supported by the ultimate report of the Worldwide Regulation Fee (ILC) Examine Group on sea-level rise and worldwide legislation, which was issued simply previous to the discharge of the Advisory Opinion.

Within the Advisory Opinion, the ICJ famous that members within the proceedings had voiced sturdy considerations about sea-level rise and its implications, specifically with respect to maritime entitlements and to statehood (see Advisory Opinion, ¶ 355). With respect to maritime entitlements, the ICJ concluded that there was no obligation on States events to UNCLOS, within the context of bodily adjustments ensuing from climate-change associated sea degree rise, to replace their charts or lists of geographical co-ordinates that present the baselines and outer restrict traces of their maritime zones as soon as they had been duly established in conformity with UNCLOS (see Advisory Opinion, ¶¶ 360-62). The ICJ prefaced its conclusion with the statement that this was the view of many States and the understanding of the ILC on the convergence of views of States throughout all areas. On statehood, the ICJ concluded, after noting that some States supported the appliance of a powerful presumption in favor of continued statehood within the occasion of the whole lack of a State’s territory and the displacement of its inhabitants, that when a State is established, the disappearance of one in all its constituent components wouldn’t essentially entail the lack of its statehood (see Advisory Opinion, ¶ 363). 

The ICJ’s conclusions on sea-level rise could be in step with the interpretations of worldwide legislation that had been being pushed for by SIDS in assist of the preservation of maritime entitlements and continuity of statehood, however lack of bodily territory as a result of sea-level rise. The statement has been made that extra readability may have been offered by the ICJ. This was a view that was additionally held by Choose Peter Tomka in a declaration and Choose Bogdan Aurescu in a separate opinion. Nonetheless, on the very least, the conclusions of the ICJ are in step with the interpretations championed by SIDS and so they go away little room for cogent arguments to be made in opposition to the preservation of maritime entitlements and the continuity of statehood. That the ICJ determined to opine on sea-level rise in itself was vital. ITLOS had, in its advisory opinion on local weather change, declined to opine on sea-level rise and maritime entitlements because it felt that the query that it acquired, whereas mentioning sea-level rise, ought to have been clearer on this respect if the intention was for the Tribunal to handle the problem (see ITLOS advisory opinion, ¶ 150).

Having regard to the upcoming conferences and processes of the UN Basic Meeting, it’s possible that the ICJ’s conclusions on sea-level rise will quickly have a sensible impression. The UN Basic Meeting determined, in 2024, to convene a high-level assembly to debate sea-level rise. This may happen in the course of the 81st session of the Meeting in 2026. Previous to this assembly, a concise, action-oriented political declaration shall be negotiated. The ICJ’s conclusions on maritime entitlements and statehood are more likely to characteristic closely within the discussions on the assembly and, additionally, within the negotiations for the declaration. Different conclusions of the ICJ will little doubt be a key a part of local weather change discourse in years to return. However, with the upcoming high-level assembly and associated negotiations, the stage has been set for the common acceptance of the interpretations of worldwide legislation in assist of the preservation of maritime entitlements and continuity of statehood however lack of bodily territory as a result of sea-level rise, and the ICJ’s conclusions will doubtless play a serious position on this respect.