Sovereignty Submerged: The Transformation of International Law in the Climate Crisis

Abstract

This article investigates the transforming legal architectures of statehood and refugee protection in the era of climate crisis focusing on the jurisprudential and diplomatic developments between 2015 and 2025. It interrogates the central research question of how international legal personality can survive the loss of physical territory and whether human rights law provides a viable alternative to the exclusionary 1951 Refugee Convention. The analysis synthesizes recent landmark decisions including the Human Rights Committee ruling in Teitiota versus New Zealand and the seminal 2025 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on Climate Change, which cautiously observed that the loss of physical territory does not necessarily entail the cessation of statehood. It further examines the Australia Tuvalu Falepili Union Treaty as a novel bilateral model for mobility with dignity that creates functional integration while bypassing traditional asylum frameworks. This article advances an original normative and doctrinal proposition: that international law inherently accommodates a 'functional sovereignty' paradigm, actively decoupling State continuity from terrestrial constraints. This creates a legally enforceable portable identity for deterritorialized nations, compelling the international community to guarantee human mobility with dignity rather than relying on discretionary refugee regimes.