About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

39 Berkeley J. Int'l L. 249 (2021)
The Racism in Climate Change Law: Critiquing the Law on Climate Change-Related Displacement with Critical Race Theory

handle is hein.journals/berkjintlw39 and id is 257 raw text is: The Racism in Climate Change Law: Critiquing the Law on Climate Change- Related Displacement with Critical Race Theory Dylan Asafo* The recent decision by the UN Human Rights Committee in Ioane Teitiota v. New Zealand was celebrated in the media as a landmark and historic decision for people in the Pacific Islands and around the world facing realities of climate change-related displacement. However, in adopting a Critical Race Theory (CRT) lens, this Article offers a critique that examines the racism underpinning the Committee's reasoning in doing so. My central thesis is that the Committee's decision, and the decisions of the New Zealand courts it affirmed, should be understood as an instance of racist climate change law. Specifically, I argue that in these decisions, racism manifested when the white privilege of the predominantly white decision-makers (which I refer to as judicial white privilege) led them to impose poor standards of living for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, adopt inadequate and empty lines of reasoning to justify their judicial inaction, and obscure the racist colonial roots of vulnerabilities to climate change in the Pacific Islands. In considering the implications of this racism, this Article then confronts the tension between the apparent need to find legal solutions to climate change- related displacement and long standing calls by people in the Pacific Islands for wealthy states to fulfil their obligations to reduce their emissions and support climate change adaptation measures in the Pacific Island region. In opting to support the latter and in being inspired by the relationship between racism and climate change in the Pacific, this Article proposes that climate justice movements consider adopting a racial justice framing of climate *Lecturer on Law, University of Auckland, New Zealand. The Author would like to thank Professor Kenneth Mack for his wise and patient supervision. He is also very grateful to Professor Jane McAdam, Professor Alan Jenkins, and to all the scholars and activists in the Critical Race Theory, racial justice, and climate justice movements for their foundational work and teachings that have inspired the ideas in this Article. He would also like to thank all of the editors and staff of the Berkeley Journal of International Law for their kindness, invaluable comments, and hard work in editing this Article. All errors are his alone. 249

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most