The impact of climate change law on the principle of state sovereignty over natural resources

This dissertation serves to expand the means within international law by which to address the global interdisciplinary crisis that is climate change. The principle of sovereignty over natural resources is identified as a principle of international law, evolutionary in nature, fundamentally connected to the international legal climate change regime, and able to be impacted by the effects of climate change. The gravity of climate change is illustrated, as is the intricacy and composition of the international legal climate change regime. In the process, a particular shortcoming of the international legal climate change regime is identified, namely the lack of state compliance with climate commitments made in terms of the Kyoto Protocol 1997 and the Paris Agreement 2015. The gravity of the effects of climate change warrants the repositioning of any principle of international law that is able to address this shortcoming of the international legal climate change regime and increase the effectiveness of the regime. In this regard it is determined, more specifically, that the gravity of the effects of climate change warrants a reinterpretation and reconfiguration of the principle of sovereignty over natural resources. Climate change, forming part of the general, growing, global concern for environmental conservation and sustainable development, influences the interpretation and configuration of state rights and state duties in terms of the principle by eliciting an interpretation that restricts state rights and expands state duties. Furthermore, the gravity of the effects of climate change on the well-being of people, warrants a reinterpretation and reconfiguration of the principle of sovereignty over natural resources as a people-oriented principle as opposed to the conventional state-oriented principle, and ought to be applied with due regard to the rights of people in terms of the principle. The right of people in terms of the principle of sovereignty over natural resources, is identified as the right to economic self-determination, which gives effect to the right of people to dispose freely of natural resources.Should this right be promoted in future applications of the principle of sovereignty over natural resources, the right may well be established as constituting a significant basis on which people are able to hold states accountable for climate commitments made in terms of the Kyoto Protocol 1997 and the Paris Agreement 2015. In this way, the principle of sovereignty over natural resources, specifically the implementation of the right of people to dispose freely of natural resources in terms of the principle, presents a negative incentive for state compliance with climate commitments and can contribute to addressing the lack of state compliance within the international legal climate change regime. In summary, this dissertation proposes that the grave effects of climate change warrant a repositioning of the principle of sovereignty over natural resources that allows it to constitute a contribution to climate change law and the global fight against climate change.