The Right of Self-Determination in the Context of Climate Change (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, grade: 1,2, University of Heidelberg (Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht), course: Master of International Law - Investment, Trade and Arbitration, language: English, abstract: What we only know from films and history, like the history of Atlantis from the ancient times, will become reality in the nearest future. In the South Pacific, one of the greatest inundations in the world's history threats including the loss of territory for various islands and, in the worst case, the loss of a whole Island State - of the low-lying coral atoll island State Kiribati. The question raises if there does not yet exist neither a migration plan nor an answer to the question, what happens with the State Kiribati when it will be inundated.

The cause for that phenomenon is one of the very present problems in the world's discussion: the Climate Change. "Climate Change is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and climate-effected hazards have direct and irreversible consequences on people, property, business, financial systems, and state institutions worldwide."

However, the phenomenon of the Climate Change is well-known nowadays, and material for discussion, the International Law offers only a few approaches and rarely solutions for the urgent threat. In this particular research project, it will be tried to resolve the question, how to define a State without territory if the territory will be inundated.