LEGAL STATUS OF ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS AND CLIMATE REFUGEES UNDER UNCLOS: A COMPREHENSIVE REINTERPRETATION FOR THE ANTHROPOCENE
Author(s): Dr. Subholaxmi Mukherjee
Publication #: 2512008
Date of Publication: 11.12.2025
Country: India
Pages: 1-13
Published In: Volume 11 Issue 6 December-2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62970/IJIRCT.v11.i6.2512008
Abstract
Rising seas in the Anthropocene have disrupted some of the most settled assumptions of the international legal order. At the center of this disruption lie two legal anomalies the current system is ill-equipped to manage: the uncertain maritime status of artificial islands, and the absence of a coherent protection regime for people displaced by climate-driven environmental collapse. This article argues that the legal tools created in the second half of the twentieth century—particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), refugee law instruments, and doctrines of statehood—are structurally mismatched to the twenty-first-century realities of disappearing territory and engineered landforms.
Through a close reading of UNCLOS, state practice, and the emerging jurisprudence of maritime disputes, the article demonstrates that artificial islands, despite their increasing geopolitical and existential value, cannot generate territorial sovereignty or maritime zones. Yet, as some states face the prospect of partial or near-total submergence, these structures are no longer merely strategic installations—they have become instruments of survival for Small Island Developing States. In parallel, millions of individuals facing climate-driven displacement fall outside the scope of the Refugee Convention, leaving a profound protection gap that human rights law and the principle of non-refoulement have tried, inconsistently, to fill.
To bridge these lacunae, the article synthesizes doctrinal, normative, and policy-oriented perspectives, arguing that the international community must reimagine central categories of maritime law, sovereignty, and refugee protection. It proposes a three-part framework: (1) recognition of “survival-based statehood” enabling threatened states to retain maritime zones even after physical land loss; (2) development of a binding multilateral instrument for climate-induced displacement anchored in human rights principles; and (3) evolving UNCLOS through state practice to accommodate the stabilizing role of artificial islands without undermining the prohibition on acquiring maritime entitlements from constructed land.
The article concludes that the future stability of the international legal system—politically, normatively, and institutionally—depends on whether the law can evolve at the pace of planetary change. The survival of vulnerable states, and the dignity of millions of displaced people, hang in the balance.
Keywords: Artificial Islands, UNCLOS, Climate Refugees, Sea-Level Rise, Maritime Sovereignty, Baseline Stability, Statehood, Disappearing States, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Climate-Induced Displacement, Non-Refoulement, Human Rights Law, Anthropocene Governance, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Deterritorialized States, Customary International Law, Refugee Convention, International Maritime Law, Environmental Migration, Ocean Governance
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