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

53 German Y.B. Int'l L. 89 (2010)
Responsibility and Climate Change

handle is hein.journals/gyil53 and id is 90 raw text is: Responsibility and Climate Change MALGOSIA FITZMAURICE* ABSTRACT: The question of responsibility and climate change is a complex matter to which there are no clear-cut solutions. The main question investigated in this essay is the applicability and the general usefulness of the rules of State responsi- bility in the context of climate change, due to its special character, which escapes the classical framework of these rules. There is also a question of the legal character of international obligations pertaining to climate change which are not of a traditional bilateral character but have to be placed within the paradigm of the obligations erga ones (or erga omnespartes). Additionally, there are some unresolved issues of causa- tion and due diligence, which in the case of climate change, are particularly vague and ill-defined. New developments in international environmental law, which may have certain influence on responsibility for climate change - the precautionary principle, environmental impact assessment, common but differentiated responsibilities - but, in themselves, are not the elements of the traditional paradigm of State responsibility, are also addressed in this essay. Finally, the essay considers the possibility of climate change constituting a self-contained regime. KEYWORDS: climate change, responsibility, obligations erga omnes, erga omnes partes, damage, causation, Principle 21, ILC Articles on State Responsbility, common concern of mankind, self-contained regimes I. Introduction A discussion of climate change and responsibility, one of the most complicated and debated issues of international (environmental) law, should be set in the broader context of responsibility for environmental damage. Responsibility for environmental damage itself constitutes part and parcel of the general questions of responsibility for wrongful acts, which were codified and developed by the International Law Commis- • Professor of Public International Law at Queen Mary College, University of London.

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