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Michael B. Gerrard and Gregory E. Wannier (eds). (2013). Threatened island nations: Legal implications of rising seas and a changing climate. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 639pp. ISBN: 978-1-107-02576-9. US$140.
Low-lying island countries have become synonymous with climate change impacts. Even if they are not entirely inundated due to rising seas, changes which are detrimental, severe, and irreversible are expected to occur to their communities, so the islanders might need to move. Much has been written speculating and asking questions about the various social, political, and livelihood implications. Legal implications are much less studied, often with non-lawyers authoring pieces.
To provide legal expertise regarding what happens to peoples, nations, and countries if their islands are no longer habitable under climate change, the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University's Law School, USA, joined forces with the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to organize a conference in May 2011 in New York, on the theme "Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of Rising Seas and a Changing Climate". This book, with the same title, publishes several edited papers based on this conference's presentations.
The editors and all lead authors, except for those of one chapter, are either lawyers or work in the law field. They include academics and practitioners, some who are both, as well as others who hail from an interdisciplinary background involving law. Lawyers from, or working directly with, island states are well-represented. A good balance is achieved between male and female authors, as well as a wide geographic scope of contributors.
The seventeen chapters are divided into four sections. First, an editorial introduction offers an overview of the book plus, from the only non-lawyer lead author, a summary of scientific knowledge on climate change and sea-level rise. The next three sections cover the main content, divided into "Part II: Sovereignty...