State Responsibility for Disrupting Earth's Climate System: Anticipating the ICJ Advisory Opinion

January 2025
Citation:
55
ELR __ (Preview)
Issue
1
Author
Natalia Urzola, Nicholas A. Robinson, Léonore Gaboardi Carandell, Daye Chen, Bryce Clark, and Madison Routledge Pettus

In 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will deliver an advisory opinion on the legal obligations of nations with respect to the mounting damage caused by climate change. This ruling will definitively restate applicable international law, provide a basis for new global policy decisions within the U.N. General Assembly, and provide a predicate for new lawsuits in national courts. To be effective, remedies for breaching a government’s duties to avert climate change will require a “collective remedy,” not merely financial compensation. This ruling was sought by law students from the South Pacific and elsewhere; this Article, also by young legal scholars, evaluates the scope and estimates the content of the forthcoming ICJ opinion.

Natalia Urzola is an S.J.D. candidate at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, and Chief Operations Officer at the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment. Nicholas A. Robinson is University Professor for the Environment at Pace University. Léonore Gaboardi Carandell is an exchange student at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law from Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University. Daye Chen is a J.D. candidate from China, and Bryce Clark and Madison Routledge Pettus are J.D. candidates from the United States, each at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law.