Balancing State Sovereignty and Climate Change as a Common Concern of Humankind
(2024) JURM02 20242Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- Climate change constitutes a major collective action problem because it affects all of humanity, and an effective response to it is unlikely if individual actors prioritize their own interests independently. The international community has thus acknowledged that the issue requires a collective response. Climate change has also been considered a common concern of humankind. The concept of common concern of humankind emphasizes the need to account for the interests of all of humanity, including future generations, while recognising the severity and potential irreversibility of impacts, if the issue at hand is left inadequately addressed. To consider an issue as a common concern of humankind also emphasizes the need for cooperation and... (More)
- Climate change constitutes a major collective action problem because it affects all of humanity, and an effective response to it is unlikely if individual actors prioritize their own interests independently. The international community has thus acknowledged that the issue requires a collective response. Climate change has also been considered a common concern of humankind. The concept of common concern of humankind emphasizes the need to account for the interests of all of humanity, including future generations, while recognising the severity and potential irreversibility of impacts, if the issue at hand is left inadequately addressed. To consider an issue as a common concern of humankind also emphasizes the need for cooperation and collective responsibility. However, these elements appear to conflict with ideas of state sovereignty, such as independence and authority. This thesis explores the tension between state sovereignty and common concern of humankind. This is achieved by analysing how an international customary obligation of cooperation, relating to climate change as a common concern of humankind, could be reconciled with legal norms of state sovereignty.
State sovereignty is a multifaceted notion in international law since it is considered to be both a basis for international law, as well as based in international law. The understanding of sovereignty as a basis for international law impacts how the law construes norms of state sovereignty, denoting some of these norms as fundamental to the international legal order. However, the notion of state sovereignty encompasses not only rights but also several duties, including a general duty to cooperate. This thesis finds that an obligation of states to cooperate, as shaped by the conceptualization of climate change as a common concern of humankind, could constitute an obligation to cooperate in the making of international law. More specifically, it could comprise a duty to negotiate in good faith with a view to reaching a mutually acceptable and equitable agreement that has the aim to adequately address one or more aspects of climate change. It is submitted that this obligation possibly could be reconciled with legal norms of state sovereignty. How these norms should be interpreted and applied would be determined on a case-by-case basis. Nonetheless, it is plausible that the rights pertaining to the principle of state sovereignty would shape the interpretation and application of a duty to negotiate. This entails that the duty could be more prominent in already established contexts of cooperation among non-ideologically alien states. This thesis concludes that an obligation of cooperation, relating to climate change as a common concern of humankind, could possibly be reconciled with legal norms of state sovereignty, and thus has potential to fit into the international legal system. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9179531
- author
- Wennerfors, Frida LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- JURM02 20242
- year
- 2024
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- public international law, climate change, international cooperation, common concern of humankind, community interest, collective action problem, norm conflict, state sovereignty
- language
- English
- id
- 9179531
- date added to LUP
- 2025-01-20 13:37:00
- date last changed
- 2025-01-20 13:37:00
@misc{9179531,
abstract = {{Climate change constitutes a major collective action problem because it affects all of humanity, and an effective response to it is unlikely if individual actors prioritize their own interests independently. The international community has thus acknowledged that the issue requires a collective response. Climate change has also been considered a common concern of humankind. The concept of common concern of humankind emphasizes the need to account for the interests of all of humanity, including future generations, while recognising the severity and potential irreversibility of impacts, if the issue at hand is left inadequately addressed. To consider an issue as a common concern of humankind also emphasizes the need for cooperation and collective responsibility. However, these elements appear to conflict with ideas of state sovereignty, such as independence and authority. This thesis explores the tension between state sovereignty and common concern of humankind. This is achieved by analysing how an international customary obligation of cooperation, relating to climate change as a common concern of humankind, could be reconciled with legal norms of state sovereignty.
State sovereignty is a multifaceted notion in international law since it is considered to be both a basis for international law, as well as based in international law. The understanding of sovereignty as a basis for international law impacts how the law construes norms of state sovereignty, denoting some of these norms as fundamental to the international legal order. However, the notion of state sovereignty encompasses not only rights but also several duties, including a general duty to cooperate. This thesis finds that an obligation of states to cooperate, as shaped by the conceptualization of climate change as a common concern of humankind, could constitute an obligation to cooperate in the making of international law. More specifically, it could comprise a duty to negotiate in good faith with a view to reaching a mutually acceptable and equitable agreement that has the aim to adequately address one or more aspects of climate change. It is submitted that this obligation possibly could be reconciled with legal norms of state sovereignty. How these norms should be interpreted and applied would be determined on a case-by-case basis. Nonetheless, it is plausible that the rights pertaining to the principle of state sovereignty would shape the interpretation and application of a duty to negotiate. This entails that the duty could be more prominent in already established contexts of cooperation among non-ideologically alien states. This thesis concludes that an obligation of cooperation, relating to climate change as a common concern of humankind, could possibly be reconciled with legal norms of state sovereignty, and thus has potential to fit into the international legal system.}},
author = {{Wennerfors, Frida}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Balancing State Sovereignty and Climate Change as a Common Concern of Humankind}},
year = {{2024}},
}