Overview
- Considers a crucial issue within international law and global politics: climate change and climate-related migration
- Provides the academic and policy community with a better understanding of climate-related migration
- Centers the question "why should so-called climate refugees be protected abroad" not through the lens of ethics but rather, international public law
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
About this book
This book studies the topic of forced climate migrants (commonly referred to as “climate refugees”) through the lens of international law and identifies the reasons why these migrants should be granted international protection. Through an analysis focused on climate change and human rights international law, it points out the legal principles and rules upon which an international obligation to protect persons forced to migrate due to climate change is emerging. Sciaccaluga advocates for a state obligation to protect climate migrants when their origin countries have become extremely environmentally fragile due to climate change—to the point of becoming unable to guarantee the exercise of inalienable human rights in their territories. Turning to the future, this book then investigates the current elements on which a “forced climate migrants law” could be built, ultimately arguing for the duty to provide some form of assistance to forced climate migrants in a third state within the international legal system.
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
- climate change
- climate refugees
- migration
- global migration
- international law
- international protection
- legal theory
- international human rights
- human rights law
- human rights
- forced climate migrants
- global warming
- Hedley Bull
- international refugee law
- survival refugees
- eco-migrants
- erga omnes obligation
- environment
- inalienable rights
- absolute rights
Table of contents (12 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Are All Climate Change Migrants Equal? Making Light in the “Climate Refugees Cauldron”
-
Front Matter
-
-
A Problem of Rights and Responsibilities: The Legal Rationale for the Protection of Forced Climate Migrants
-
Front Matter
-
-
The Embryos of Forced Climate Migrants’ Law
-
Front Matter
-
-
Back Matter
Reviews
“There are at least three reasons to read this book. The first is the topic. The protection of forced climate refugees is a growing problem which deserves attention. The book not only shows the strict interconnection among environmental protection and migration issues and the need to enhance international cooperation in these fields, but also how important it is to think out of schemes and in an interdisciplinary way. This is how the book approaches the topic. The second reason is the content. The book follows a path, which makes it clear, also to readers who are not familiar with environment and migration international law, how to understand the problems related to the protection of climate migrants. It identifies those climate migrants who are in need of protection; it then explains why they are in this need and what kind of protection should be provided to them by considering the existing sources of international law granting, or capable of granting, such protection standards. The book then turns to the future and investigates the legal elements on which a forced climate migrant’s law can (and hopefully will) be built. The third reason is the author: Giovanni Sciaccaluga is a profound and promising researcher, who very much cares about environmental protection and coherently lives his life. This book also mirrors the author’s identity.”
—Laura Carpaneto, Associate Professor of European Union law, University of Genoa, Italy“While much has been written on the topic of climate change and displacement, the clear line of argument and strong interdisciplinary orientation, the up-to-date discussion of recent legal developments, and the insightful thoughts on how the law protecting people displaced across borders in the context of climate change might further evolve make Giovanni Sciaccaluga's book a particularly welcome contribution to the discussion.”
—Walter Kälin, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Public Law, University of Bern, Switzerland
“This forward-lookingwork successfully sets the stage for the in-depth analysis of a central aspect of migration, one of the issues of most pressing concern to the international community today. By focusing on the relationship between International Law and Climate Change, the book greatly advances the contemporary discussion on human displacement across international frontiers and the protection under International Law of climate-change forced migrants, commonly referred to as “climate refugees.” This canvas is filled by the separate extensive coverage given to migration management at the national level. The full picture that clearly emerges is solidly founded on thorough research in past and current migration patterns and the expanding corpus of applicable law, whether embodied in international or national hard- and soft-law instruments and judicial decisions. Their rigorous scientific study makes for a compelling argument in favor of the development in international law of a customary duty to protect thenew category of “climate refugees,” to whom neither established refugee law nor protection mechanisms are currently applicable. By basing itself on the paramount concept of interdependence among States, the book epitomizes action most urgently needed to counter the forces that, by invoking an outmoded notion of the “national interest,” are bent on destroying rather than improving and, thus, strengthening the post war international legal order .
The comprehensive and systematic treatment of its crucial subject-matter, in an impeccable English prose, should incentivize the obligatory reading of this valuable book by the specialist—jurist as well as policy-maker—and the non specialist alike.”
—Eduardo Valencia-Ospina, Member and former Chairman of the International Law Commission and its Special Rapporteur on the “Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters”“The interplay between climate change and migration is and will be a defining featureof our age. By unpacking this nexus, Sciaccaluga provides a compelling legal argument for the protection of forced climate migrants, which blends feasibility and ambition. A must read for any scholar, practitioner or layperson wishing to understand this complex relationship.”
—–Nathalie Tocci, Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, Honorary Professor at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and Special Adviser to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Giovanni Sciaccaluga is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the field of International Law at the University of Genoa, Italy.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: International Law and the Protection of “Climate Refugees”
Authors: Giovanni Sciaccaluga
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52402-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Law and Criminology, Law and Criminology (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-52401-2Published: 06 August 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-52404-3Published: 07 August 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-52402-9Published: 05 August 2020
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XX, 217
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Public International Law, Migration, Social Justice, Equality and Human Rights, Climate Change