The following podcast contains advertising.

To access an ad-free version of the LawFair podcast,

become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair.

That's patreon.com slash law fair.

Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings,

rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.

So it's already causing to have a lot of displacement of their populations internally within their own borders.

Some of their populations have left to go to other countries in terms of trying to find places where they can have more security,

not at risk of experiencing these impacts of climate change.

And so I think for these countries that are most at risk, they are providing tremendous leadership in terms of setting the tone of how we should address climate change,

and really exercising outsized power compared to their relative size to other more powerful, more popular states.

And it's really a tremendous testament to their leadership that they're willing to push these efforts forward.

But in some senses, they don't really have that much of a choice because of the tremendous danger that they all face from the impacts of climate change.

I'm Tyler McBride, managing editor of LawFair.

And this is the LawFair podcast, April 17, 2023.

The Republic of Vanuatu, a small island nation in the South Pacific, just won a big victory in New York City.

At the end of March, the UN General Assembly voted to adopt the request for an advised opinion of the International Court of Justice on the obligations of states in respect of climate change.

To talk through what Vanuatu's General Counsel called, quote, a diplomatic feat of Herculian proportions, I sat down with Melissa Stewart, an assistant professor of law designate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa,

and author of a recent LawFair article on the advisory opinion request and its potential risks and rewards.

We discussed how an idea that began in an environmental law class in Fiji made it to the highest court in the world, what the ICJ might clarify or not, other efforts in international law to address climate change,

and how territorial laws and other destructive effects from climate change could upend our traditional conception of statehood as we know it.

It's the LawFair podcast, April 17, Vanuatu's big climate win with Melissa Stewart.

...