Law Commons^™

Climate Change And Human Rights: Shaping The Narrative For Reflexive Responses From Civilization’S Leadership To Counter And Abate Climate Change And Enhance The Role Of Human Rights In The Rule Of Law, Michael Donlan

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article offers a bold new legal process for enhancing and upgrading the rule of law to enable civilization to cope with and counter the mounting damage and injustice caused by climate change. Climate change, once an unimaginable threat, is now a brutal, ubiquitous game changer that is leading inexorably to the demise of all humanity. Only by enhancing the rule of law and melding international law with domestic law can civilization fashion a coherent, global action plan for survival.

For almost three centuries greenhouse gases have been emitted around the world by the burning of fossil fuel, and—most alarming—these …

A Catholic Response To Global Climate Change Migration, Michael S. Talbot

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

This Article examines Catholic Social Teaching’s approach to the challenges of human migration and environmental refugees. By juxtaposing the inadequacies of current international frameworks for protecting environmental migrants with previous sources of Catholic Social Teaching, this Article speculates on the possible moral argument to be made by the Church in support of efforts to fill a gap in the international legal framework around climate change induced migration. Ultimately, the Paper speculates that such an argument would include three components: (1) a broadening of the definition of refugee, (2) a recognition of our interconnected and interdependent lives, and (3) the expectation …

Climate Change Refugees In The Time Of Sinking Islands, Jane Steffens

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

While environmental migration is not a new phenomenon, the international community has been slow to react to a wildly increasing number of people displaced by climate-related factors. With the current scenario of sinking islands, rapid urbanization, and drought, the international community seems to be on the precipice of a massive humanitarian catastrophe. Even so, lawmakers appear hesitant to fill in the gaps of existing international law, leaving an entire category of people vulnerable and unprotected against the effects of climate change. Private climate-governance initiatives can achieve large-scale, prompt, and efficient solutions to climate-induced migration. While private governance initiatives lack the …