Abstract
The last chapter focuses on clarifying the term ‘climate conflict’ with an emphasis on the social response to climate change. Usually a definition would be the starting point of a legal analysis. As already indicated, this study established the facts of its object while analyzing the very same. The definition can thus not be the starting point of this work, because this analysis is the very requirement to draft a definition.
Despite the fact that the ‘climate element’ of the term ‘climate conflict’ is an addendum to the ‘older’ phenomena ‘conflict,’ to establish the ‘conflict’ component proved to be a higher challenge. Much literature can be found on the law of armed conflict (LOAC). Entire libraries can be filled with books relating to what codes are applicable in times of war and in naval conflicts, conflicts on land and in the air, who has to be protected at what time and under which circumstances. However, it is a real challenge to find a definition of the term ‘armed conflict’ or ‘conflict,’ i.e. the actual object of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). When do all these international regulations apply? What are the preconditions? The last chapter will cover these questions by trying to bring some light into the inconsistently used terminology of IHL, which is discussed at length in the chapter on International Humanitarian Law. The examination later draws on Peace and Conflict Studies to complete the legal definition.
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Notes
- 1.
The preamble of the Hague Convention includes the Martens Clause.
- 2.
Shelton and Kiss (2000), p. 286.
- 3.
Kolb and Hyde (2008), p. 63.
- 4.
Schmahl (2001), p. 57.
- 5.
Duffield (2000), p. 73.
- 6.
See e.g.: Hoffmann (2009).
- 7.
Common article 3 to the Geneva Convention I–IV states:
In the case of an armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
(1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of the armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be humanely treated, without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.
To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b) taking of hostage
(c) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;
(d) the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
(2) The wounded, sick and shipwrecked shall be collected and cared for.
Additional Protocol II of 1977 adopted, developed and supplemented article 3. Additional Protocol II deals exclusively with non-international armed conflicts. Protocol II adopts a high threshold of application, by expressively providing that it shall not apply to
[…] situations of internal disturbances and tensions, such as riots, isolated and sporadic acts of violence and other acts of similar nature.
- 8.
Aust (2005), p. 245.
- 9.
Boczek (2005), p. 420.
- 10.
- 11.
Boczek (2005), p. 420.
- 12.
Kolb and Hyde (2008), p. 270.
- 13.
Ibid., p. 73.
- 14.
Ratione loci, refers to the territorial scope of the conflict. This factor needs to be interpreted in the light of climate change. GHGs are emitted in one area and their effects manifest somewhere else.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Goodhand and Hulme (1999), p. 14.
- 17.
Dahrendorf (1961), pp. 201 f.
- 18.
Ury et al. (1991), p. 20.
- 19.
Brown (1983), p. 182.
- 20.
Glasl (2010), p. 14.
- 21.
- 22.
Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (ed.) (2009), p. 84.
- 23.
Aust (2005), pp. 254, 255.
- 24.
- 25.
Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (ed.) (2013), p. 9.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
Ibid.
- 28.
Ibid., pp. 9, 10.
- 29.
In accordance with the idea of ‘extremes’ by Dahrendorf. Dahrendorf (1961), pp. 201 f. See above for explanation.
- 30.
The active rejection of the claim is established in accordance with the findings of Ury and Brett. Ury et al. (1991), p. 20. See above for explanation.
- 31.
To exclude the actual use of force from the conflict definition is in line with the jurisdiction of the Tadić case. See: International Tribunal to the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) para. 70; Boczek (2005), p. 419. See above for explanation.
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Christiansen, S.M. (2016). Definition of Climate Conflicts. In: Climate Conflicts - A Case of International Environmental and Humanitarian Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27945-9_8
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