Sea-Level Rise and State of Necessity: Maintaining Current Baselines and Outer Limits of National Maritime Zones

Abstract

For some coastal States, the rise in sea levels may cause the baselines and national maritime spaces to regress towards the coast. From a legal point of view, the question arises as to whether, in the event of such phenomenon occurring, the States concerned would be able to maintain their current baselines and outer limits of national maritime spaces. According to some authors, this would be prohibited by the existing rules of the international law of the sea. If this were the case, one would nevertheless still have to consider whether the States affected by sea-level rise could invoke a state of necessity in order not to apply, without committing an internationally wrongful act, any rules of international law stipulating that baselines are ambulatory. In order to answer that question, this essay examines and applies to the present case all the cumulative conditions laid down in Article 25 of the Draft Articles on State Responsibility adopted in 2001 by the International Law Commission.