If a country sinks beneath the sea, is it still a country, asks NYT
24 Aug 2010, 8:49 PM
Minivan News
Rising ocean levels brought about by climate change have created a flood of unprecedented legal questions for small island nations and their neighbors, writes Lisa Friedman in the New York Times.
Among them: If a country disappears, is it still a country? Does it keep its seat at the United Nations? Who controls its offshore mineral rights? Its shipping lanes? Its fish?
And if entire populations are forced to relocate — as could be the case with citizens of the Maldives, Tuvalu, Kiribati and other small island states facing extinction — what citizenship, if any, can those displaced people claim?
Share the story
Explore more