Document Type
Book
Publication Date
12-2025
Abstract
This open-access edited volume offers the first comprehensive analysis of the International Court of Justice’s 2025 Advisory Opinion on the obligations of States in respect of climate change, one of the most consequential developments in international climate law since the adoption of the Paris Agreement. Bringing together leading scholars and practitioners from across public international law, human rights law, environmental law, and global governance, the book examines how the Court reframed climate change as a matter of binding legal obligation rather than political discretion.
The contributions explore the Opinion’s articulation of state duties under treaties, customary international law, and general principles, including due diligence, the prevention of significant environmental harm, international cooperation, and the protection of human rights. Particular attention is given to the Court’s treatment of reparations and responsibility, its engagement with the law of the sea, displacement and statehood under conditions of sea-level rise, and the implications for energy governance and domestic climate litigation. Several chapters also situate the Opinion within an emerging judicial dialogue alongside the advisory opinions of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Beyond doctrinal clarification, the volume critically engages with what the Court did not say. A dedicated section interrogates silences concerning differentiation of responsibilities, historical and colonial responsibility, military emissions, and regional perspectives, treating judicial restraint as an object of analysis in its own right. Taken together, the chapters show how the Advisory Opinion consolidates an integrated legal framework for climate governance while leaving key questions open for future litigation and interpretation.
By combining close legal analysis with comparative and critical perspectives, this book positions the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion as a legal and institutional watershed whose influence will unfold across international adjudication, national courts, and climate policy debates in the years ahead.
Disciplines
Environmental Law | International Law | Law
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Maria Antonia Tigre, Maxim Bönnemann & Antoine De Spiegeleir, The ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change (Verfassungsbooks, 2025)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/sabin_climate_change/262
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