INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

The first memo examines the body of international law applicable to the questions before the Court, and demonstrates that multiple sources of law define the scope of State duties in relation to protection of the climate system. [...] The climate agreements are neither the origin of the legal obligations of States to act in the face of the climate emergency, nor the final word on the extent of those obligations. [...] 14 “The frameworks and norms outlined included: the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozon. [...] Similarly, States have recognized the importance of protecting the ocean and its ecosystems in the Convention and the Paris Agreement and subsequent Conference of the Parties (COP) decisions have underlined the commitment of States to strengthen ocean-based climate action.43 In terms of textual references, the UNFCCC, for example, in Article 2 expresses its objective to protect the climate system,. [...] Notably at the oral hearings of the ongoing climate advisory proceedings before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Commission of Small Island States (COSIS), in response to whether the obligations of States Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) go beyond obligations assumed under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, argued that “UNCLOS is the applic.