Law School Conference Will Seek to Throw Legal Lifeline to ?Drowning? Island Nations

New York (Vocus) August 2, 2010
Rising sea levels due to climate change may literally wipe some island nations off the map.

There are myriad legal issues surrounding these so-called drowning nations?many of them in the Pacific and Indian oceans?that are slated to be addressed for the first time in a conference at Columbia Law School.

The Law School?s Center for Climate Change Law has put out a call for papers to lawyers and legal scholars for the conference, tentatively scheduled for next May.

?These nations regard it as a very serious ? and rapidly increasing ? risk that they will lose some or many of their islands,? said Michael Gerrard, the Center?s Director and the Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice.

A 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected that sea levels would rise an average of five millimeters per year this century, although the rise is expected to be higher in parts of the Pacific. Some island nations are particularly vulnerable as most of their land lies at most only a few feet above sea level.

The 43-member Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) put out a declaration last year that said ?climate change poses the most serious threat to our survival and viability, and?it undermines our efforts to achieve sustainable development goals and threatens our very existence.?

The conference arose after Gerrard was contacted by the U.N. Ambassador Phillip Muller of the low-lying Republic of the Marshall Islands ? an AOSIS member. The Marshall Islands? government is concerned about how the many novel legal questions could be answered. An international conference appeared to be the best way to go about generating a serious discussion and academic analysis.

Among the issues Gerrard hopes the conference will tackle are: