¹ Kolers, A., ‘Floating Provisos and Sinking Islands’, (2012) 29 Journal of Applied Philosophy 333 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 334. Crawford, Compare J., ‘Sovereignty as a Legal Value’, in Crawford, J. and Koskenniemi, M. (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to International Law (2012), 121 Google Scholar.

² Other than some uninhabitable rocks and a small part of Antarctica. J. Crawford, Brownlie's Principles of Public International Law (2012), 220 and 241–2.

³ Lachs, M., ‘The Development and General Trends of International Law in Our Time’, (1980) 169 Recueil des Cours de l'Académie de Droit International 32 Google Scholar, at 32.

⁴ J. Crawford, The Creation of States in International Law (2006), 31. Schrijver, Compare N., ‘The Changing Nature of State Sovereignty’, (2000) 70 BYIL 65 Google Scholar, at 66.

⁵ 1934 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, 165 LNTS 19.

⁶ See further F. Hampson, Expanded Working Paper on the Human Rights Situation of Indigenous peoples in States and Other Territories Threatened with Extinction for Environmental Reasons, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/28 (2005), para. 25; Mimura, N. et al., ‘Small Islands’, in Parry, M. et al. (eds.), Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007), 687 Google Scholar; UNFCCC Secretariat, Climate Change: Small Island Developing States (2005).

⁷ These solutions are not considered in this article. For discussion, see J. McAdam, Climate Change, Forced Migration and International Law (2012), Ch. 5; S. Park, ‘Climate Change and the Risk of Statelessness: The Situation of Low-Lying Island States’, (2011) UNHCR Legal and Protection Policy Research Series No. 18; Soons, A., ‘The Effects of a Rising Sea Level on Maritime Limits and Boundaries’, (1990) 37 Netherlands International Law Review 207 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 230; Stoutenburg, J.G., ‘When Do States Disappear? Thresholds of Effective Statehood and the Continued Recognition of “Deterritorialized” Island States’, in Gerrard, M. and Wannier, G. (eds.), Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of Rising Seas and a Changing Climate (2013), 57 Google Scholar at 61–3; Wong, D., ‘Sovereignty Sunk? The Position of “Sinking States” at International Law’, (2013) 14 Melbourne Journal of International Law 1 Google Scholar, at 38–42. From the perspective of atoll island states, see B. Crouch, ‘Tiny Tuvalu in Save Us Plea over Rising Seas’, Sunday Mail, 5 October 2008; R. Ramesh, ‘Paradise Almost Lost: Maldives Seek to Buy a New Homeland’, The Guardian, 10 November 2008; M. Ward, ‘Planning to Sink: What Happens if Kiribati Drowns?’, PBS Newshour, 27 July 2014.

⁸ M. Shaw, International Law (2008), 208; Crawford, supra note 4, at 700–24; L. Oppenheim and H. Lauterpacht, International Law: A Treatise (1955), Vol. 1, at 206–7.

⁹ Craven, M., ‘The Problem of State Succession and the Identity of States under International Law’, (1998) 9 EJIL 142 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 145. For example, Art. 2(1)(b), 1978 Vienna Convention on Succession of States in Respect of Treaties, 1946 UNTS 3; Art. 2(1)(a), 1983 Vienna Convention on Succession of States in Respect of State Property, Archives and Debts, UN Doc. A/CONF.117/14.

¹⁰ McAdam, J., ‘“Disappearing States”, Statelessness and the Boundaries of International Law’, in McAdam, J. (ed.), Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (2010), 105 Google Scholar at 106.

¹¹ Although it is mentioned in Craven, supra note 9, at 159; L. Oppenheim, International Law: A Treatise (1905), Vol. 1, at 117–18; Shaw, supra note 8, at 208, note 52.

¹² Hampson, supra note 6, at para. 12.

¹³ Craven, supra note 9, at 159. For Marek, for example, independence is ‘indispensable to the continued existence of a state . . . With its loss, it becomes extinct’. K. Marek, Identity and Continuity of States in International Law (1968), 188. See also Grant, T., ‘Defining Statehood: The Montevideo Convention and Its Discontents’, (1999) 37 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 403 Google Scholar, at 435; Wong, supra note 7, at 22. McAdam, however, is more cautious: McAdam, supra note 7, at 127.

¹⁴ Knop, K., ‘Statehood: Territory, People, Government’, in Crawford, J. and Koskenniemi, M. (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to International Law (2012), 95 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁵ Art. 1, Montevideo Convention, supra note 5. Similar definitions are found in Opinion No. 1 of the Conference on Yugoslavia Arbitration Commission, (1992) 31 ILM 1494; Deutsche Continental Gas-Gesellschaft v. Polish State, (1929) 5 Annual Digest of Public International Law 11, at 13; G.G. Fitzmaurice, Law of Treaties, UN Doc. A/CN.4/101 (1956), at 107; American Law Institute, Restatement of the Law, Third, Foreign Relations Law of the United States (1987), at Section 201.

¹⁶ Knop, supra note 14, at 95.

¹⁷ Grant, supra note 13, at 451 and 454–5.

¹⁸ Crawford, supra note 4, at 5.

¹⁹ Craven, supra note 9, at 159.

²⁰ Crawford, supra note 2, at 128.

²¹ Craven, M., ‘Statehood, Self-Determination and Recognition’, in Evans, M. (ed.), International Law (2010), 203 Google Scholar at 220; Crawford, supra note 4, at 61; P. Malanczuk, Akehurst's Modern Introduction to International Law (1997), 79.

²² Island of Palmas Case (United States v. Netherlands), (1928) 2 RIAA 829, at 838. Other proposed criteria include self-determination, democratic legitimacy, minority rights protection, legality and self-sufficiency. Craven, supra note 21, at 220–21; Grant, supra note 13, at 437–52; Österdahl, I., ‘Relatively Failed: Troubled Statehood and International Law’, (2003) 14 FYIL 49 Google Scholar, at 50–1.

²³ Craven, supra note 21, at 228; Shaw, supra note 8, at 201.

²⁴ Crawford, supra note 2, at 129; R. Higgins, Problems and Process: International Law and How We Use It (1994), 40.

²⁵ As of July 2014. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), ‘World Factbook’, available at www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/. See also J. Duursma, Fragmentation and the International Relations of Micro-States (1996), Chapter 8; R. Jennings and A. Watts, Oppenheim's International Law (2008), 325–9.

²⁶ Duursma, supra note 25, at 412. Compare Jennings and Watts, supra note 25, at 327.

²⁷ However, the Vatican City's relationship with the Holy See has implications for its recognition by other states. Duursma, supra note 25, at 416–17.

²⁸ UNHCR, IOM and Norwegian Refugee Council, ‘Climate Change and Statelessness: An Overview’, Submission to the 6^th Session of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Co-operative Action under the UNFCCC (2009), at 1.

²⁹ Crawford, supra note 4, at 715; Schachter, O., ‘State Succession: The Once and Future Law’, (1993) 33 Virginia Journal of International Law 253 Google Scholar, at 258–60; Mushkat, R., ‘Hong Kong and Succession of Treaties’, (1997) 46 ICLQ 181 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 183–7.

³⁰ Crawford, supra note 4, at 700. Compare W. Hall, A Treatise on International Law (1924), 21; Jennings and Watts, supra note 25, at 204–5; Oppenheim and Lauterpacht, supra note 8, at 153.

³¹ Thanks to Delphine Dogot for suggesting this term.

³² G. Kreijen, State Failure, Sovereignty and Effectiveness (2004), 37.

³³ V. Lowe, International Law (2007), 165. But see Marek, supra note 13, at 5–6.

³⁴ International Law Commission (ILC), Draft Declaration on the Rights and Duties of States: General Debate, UN Doc. A/CN.4/2 (1949), at 259.

³⁵ Ibid.

³⁶ For example, Marek, supra note 13, at 24.

³⁷ Craven, supra note 9, at 159.

³⁸ Thürer, D., ‘The “Failed State” and International Law’, (1999) 81 International Review of the Red Cross 731 Google Scholar, at 737.

³⁹ Österdahl, supra note 22, at 63–4.

⁴⁰ Kälin, W., ‘Conceptualizing Climate-Induced Displacement’, in McAdam, J. (ed.), Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (2010), 81 Google Scholar at 102. Compare Wong, supra note 7, at 20.

⁴¹ UNHCR, Summary of Deliberations on Climate Change and Displacement (22–25 February 2011), para. 2 (see also para. 30).

⁴² See generally Crawford, supra note 4, at 688–95; S. Talmon, Recognition of Governments in International Law: With Particular Reference to Governments in Exile (1998), 115–206.

⁴³ See generally Helman, G. and Ratner, S., ‘Saving Failed States’, (1992–93) 89 Foreign Policy 3;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Kreijen, supra note 32; Österdahl, supra note 22; Thürer, supra note 38.

⁴⁴ Thürer, supra note 38, at 752. Compare Duursma, supra note 25, at 118; Grant, supra note 13, at 435; Higgins, supra note 24, at 40.

⁴⁵ Jennings and Watts, supra note 25, at 131–2.

⁴⁶ R. Jennings, The Acquisition of Territory in International Law (1963), 7.

⁴⁷ Crawford, supra note 4, at 46.

⁴⁸ Lowe, supra note 33, at 138. Compare Malanczuk, supra note 21, at 75; S.P. Sharma, Territorial Acquisition, Disputes and International Law (1997), 2; Shaw, supra note 8, at 199 and 960.

⁴⁹ Deutsche Continental Gas-Gesellschaft, supra note 15, at 15; North Sea Continental Shelf Cases, Judgment of 20 February 1969, [1969] ICJ Rep. 3, at 32–3.

⁵⁰ Crawford, supra note 4, at 47. Crawford cites Sovereignty over Certain Frontier Land (Belgium/Netherlands), Judgment of 20 June 1959, [1959] ICJ Rep. 209, at 212–13 and 229; Right of Passage over Indian Territory (Portugal v. India), Merits, Judgment of 12 April 1960, [1960] ICJ Rep. 6, at 27.

⁵¹ In re. Duchy of Sealand, (1989) 80 ILR 683, at 684–5. However, artificial islands do not count. See Arts. 60(1) and (8), 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), 833 UNTS 397.

⁵² Although the state is not entitled to an exclusive economic zone or continental shelf in respect of these, per Art. 121(3), UNCLOS, supra note 51.

⁵³ CIA, supra note 25. See also Duursma, supra note 25, at Chapters 6 and 8.

⁵⁴ Grant, supra note 13, at 435. Compare I. Shearer, Starke's International Law (1994), 85.

⁵⁵ Craven, supra note 21, at 224.

⁵⁶ Maritime Delimitation and Territorial Questions between Qatar and Bahrain (Qatar v. Bahrain), Merits, Judgment of 16 March 2001, [2001] ICJ Rep. 40, at para. 206. In rejecting the argument that low-tide elevations that do not lie with the territorial sea of an existing state constitute territory, the ICJ finds that ‘The few existing rules do not justify a general assumption that low-tide elevations are territory in the same sense as islands.’

⁵⁷ Duchy of Sealand, supra note 51, at 686.

⁵⁸ McAdam, supra note 7, at 124.

⁵⁹ Behind the Vatican City (842) and Nauru (9,488). CIA, supra note 25. See further Shaw, supra note 8, 199.

⁶⁰ UN Doc. A/RES/2869 (XXVI) (1971).

⁶¹ Park, supra note 7, at 7.

⁶² For example, around 57 per cent of Samoans and 46 per cent of Tongans live outside of their country of origin. C. Stahl and R. Appleyard, Migration and Development in the Pacific Islands: Lessons from the New Zealand Experience (2007), 7. See also Malanczuk, supra note 21, at 76.

⁶³ Stoutenburg, supra note 7, at 61. Compare Sharma, supra note 48, at 4.

⁶⁴ T. Lambourne, Kiribati Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Interviewed on D. Carrick, ‘Climate Change: The Pacific’, ABC Radio National: Law Report, 22 November 2011.

⁶⁵ Duchy of Sealand, supra note 51, at 686.

⁶⁶ Crawford, supra note 4, at 55.

⁶⁷ Island of Palmas Case, supra note 22, at 838. A state's independence is not necessarily compromised by the size of its territory or population, nor by its political or economic co-operation with other states. Duursma, supra note 25, at 125–6.

⁶⁸ Stoutenburg, supra note 7, at 66. See further J.G. Stoutenburg, Disappearing Island States in International Law (2015), at Section 4.2.3.

⁶⁹ Crawford, supra note 2, at 129. Craven describes effectiveness as a ‘moveable feast’. Craven, supra note 21, at 226.

⁷⁰ Crawford, supra note 4, at 63 and 89. See also Thürer, supra note 38, at 752.

⁷¹ Shaw, supra note 8, at 203–4. For historical examples, see Park, supra note 7, at 6–7.

⁷² Crawford, supra note 4, at 668. However, these conclusions have not been tested in the case of climate change inundation. See Stoutenburg, J.G., ‘Review of Jane McAdam (ed.), Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives ’, (2011) 22 EJIL 1196 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 1199.

⁷³ On recognition, see, for example, Berman, N., ‘Sovereignty in Abeyance: Self-Determination and International Law’, (1988–89) 7 Wisconsin International Law Journal 51 Google Scholar, at 81–4; Craven, supra note 21, at 240–6; Crawford, supra note 2, at 143–65; Duursma, supra note 25, at 110–15; Jennings and Watts, supra note 25, at 127–203; Talmon, supra note 42.

⁷⁴ On the role of recognition in remedying a failure to meet one or more criteria of statehood, see Duursma, supra note 25, at 430; Grant, supra note 13, at 447. On recognition in the context of climate change inundation, see W. Kälin and N. Schrepfer, ‘Protecting People Crossing Borders in the Context of Climate Change: Normative Gaps and Possible Approaches’, (2012) UNHCR Legal and Protection Policy Research Series No. 39; McAdam, supra note 7, at 137–8; Park, supra note 7, at 14; Rayfuse, R., ‘Sea Level Rise and Maritime Zones: Preserving the Maritime Entitlements of “Disappearing” States’, in Gerrard, M. and Wannier, G. (eds.), Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of Rising Seas and a Changing Climate (2013), 167 Google Scholar at 177; Stoutenburg, supra note 7; Stoutenburg, supra note 68, at Chapter 6; Wong, supra note 7, at 35–8 and 45.

⁷⁵ ‘[C]ommon objective operational criteria for the elements of the definition’ of statehood are lacking. G. von Glahn and J. Taulbee, Law Among Nations (2013), 148.

⁷⁶ Compare Craven, supra note 21, at 221.

⁷⁷ Grant, supra note 13, at 414.

⁷⁸ L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (1953).

⁷⁹ Other than the fact that all language is used as language. For Wittgenstein's emphasis on the role of use in determining meaning, see ibid., Section 43.

⁸⁰ Wittgenstein, supra note 78, at Sections 66–71.

⁸¹ Beardsmore, R., ‘The Theory of Family Resemblances’, (1992) 15 Philosophical Investigations 131 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 132.

⁸² Wittgenstein, supra note 78, at Section 66.

⁸³ Ibid., at Section 67.

⁸⁴ This has not been proposed by legal scholars elsewhere, although some accounts of statehood as a continuum of state-like entities come close. See, for example, Österdahl, supra note 22. Elsewhere, Mark Beissinger argues that the concept of ‘empire’ should be understood in terms of a ‘Wittgensteinian “family resemblance” whose meaning and referents have altered significantly over time’. M. Beissinger, ‘Soviet Empire as “Family Resemblance”’, (2006) 65 Slavic Review 294, at 303. Duncan Bell suggests that ‘it is possible to identify a family resemblance in the preconditions considered essential for successful statehood’, but does not elaborate. Bell, D., ‘The Victorian Idea of the Global State’, in Bell, D. (ed.), Victorian Visions of Global Order (2007), 159 CrossRefGoogle Scholar at 162. Yael Tamir observes that ‘all members within the category “nation” . . . show some family resemblance’, but does not cite Wittgenstein nor stay true to his understanding of family resemblances. Y. Tamir, Liberal Nationalism (1993), 65. James Tully applies Wittgenstein's family resemblance model to political concepts like cultures and constitutions. J. Tully, Strange Multiplicity (1995), 112–13 and 120–2.

⁸⁵ During the Second World War, the Norwegian government operated in exile and the state of Norway therefore lacked effective control or jurisdiction over its territory.

⁸⁶ Beissinger, supra note 84, at 297.

⁸⁷ Crawford, supra note 4, at 45.

⁸⁸ Ibid., at 88.

⁸⁹ ILC Draft Declaration on the Rights and Duties of States, supra note 34, at 259. Shearer similarly argues that, ‘Of the term “state” no exact definition is possible.’ Shearer, supra note 54, at 85. Compare Grant, supra note 13, at 408; Higgins, supra note 24, at 39; Knop, supra note 14, at 107.

⁹⁰ See, for example, M. Burkett, ‘The Nation Ex-Situ: On Climate Change, Deterritorialized Nationhood and the Post-Climate Era’, (2011) 2 Climate Law 345; McAdam, supra note 7, at Chapter 5; Rayfuse, supra note 74; Schofield, C. and Freestone, D., ‘Options to Secure Maritime Jurisdictional Claims in the Face of Global Sea Level Rise’, in Gerrard, M. and Wannier, G. (eds.), Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of Rising Seas and a Changing Climate (2013), 141;Google Scholar Stoutenburg, supra note 7; Stoutenburg, supra note 68.

⁹¹ Stoutenburg, supra note 7, at 57.

⁹² See, for example, Schofield and Freestone, supra note 90, at 152–6.

⁹³ Kälin, supra note 40, at 102 and 90–1; Stoutenburg, supra note 7, at 65.

⁹⁴ Cited in McAdam, supra note 7, at 137.

⁹⁵ McAdam, supra note 7, at 159.

⁹⁶ Stoutenburg, supra note 7, at 68; L. Yamamoto and M. Esteban, Atoll Island States and International Law (2014), 176.

⁹⁷ See generally Talmon, supra note 42, at 215ff.

⁹⁸ Allied Forces (Czechoslovak) Case, (1941–42) 10 Annual Digest of Public International Law 123, at 124.

⁹⁹ Stoutenburg, supra note 7, at 69; Stoutenburg, supra note 68, at Section 4.2.3.2. Compare Talmon, supra note 42, at 16 and 146–9.

¹⁰⁰ McAdam, supra note 7, at 135.

¹⁰¹ Park, supra note 7, at 6–7; Talmon, supra note 42, at 136; UNHCR, IOM and Norwegian Refugee Council, supra note 28, at 1; Wong, supra note 7, at 21–2.

¹⁰² Stoutenburg, supra note 7, at 69.

¹⁰³ McAdam, supra note 7, at 136–7.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid., at 138; Burkett, supra note 90; I. Kelman, ‘Difficult Decisions: Migration from Small Island Developing States under Climate Change’, (2015) 3 Earth's Future 133, at 137; McCullough, S., ‘A Call for a New International Convention to Safeguard the Human Rights of Citizens of Deterritorialised Asia-Pacific Small Island States’, (2015) 26 Colorado Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law Review 109;Google Scholar Ödalen, J., ‘Underwater Self-Determination: Sea-Level Rise and Deterritorialized Small Island States’, (2014) 17 Ethics, Policy and Environment 225;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Rayfuse, supra note 74, at 179–80; R. Rayfuse, ‘W(h)ither Tuvalu? International Law and Disappearing States’, (2009) UNSW Faculty of Law Research Series No. 9, at 11–12; Stoutenburg, supra note 7, at 70–2 and 85–7; Stoutenburg, supra note 68, at Section 6.3; Vaha, M., ‘Drowning Under: Small Island States and the Right to Exist’, (2015) 11 Journal of International Political Theory 206 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰⁵ Burkett, supra note 90.

¹⁰⁶ Ibid., at 346. Compare Rayfuse, supra note 104, at 11.

¹⁰⁷ Burkett, supra note 90, at 363ff. But see Dietrich, F. and Wündisch, J., ‘Territory Lost: Climate Change and the Violation of Self-Determination Rights’, (2015) 2 Moral Philosophy and Politics 83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁰⁸ See, for example, A. Sundberg, The History and Politics of Diaspora Voting in Home Elections (2007). On the diaspora as the ‘present-tense experience of the deterritorialized nation’, see Burkett, supra note 90, at 359.

¹⁰⁹ Burkett, supra note 90, at 367–9.

¹¹⁰ Ibid., at 363ff.

¹¹¹ This is, however, far from straightforward. In addition to the question of whether maritime baselines can be preserved in the face of rising sea levels, there is also the question of whether a deterritorialized state can continue to exercise jurisdiction over the maritime zones these delimit. For further discussion, see Caron, ‘When Law Makes Climate Change Worse: Rethinking the Law of Baselines in Light of a Rising Sea Level’, (1990) 17 Ecology Law Quarterly 621, at 641–51; Rayfuse, supra note 74, at 181–90; Schofield and Freestone, supra note 90, at 158–63; Soons, supra note 7; Yamamoto and Esteban, supra note 96, at Chapter 5.

¹¹² Rayfuse, supra note 104, at 11; Soons, supra note 7, at 230, note 90. However, on the expense of preserving and managing maritime zones, see Caron, supra note 111, at 639–40; Rayfuse, supra note 104, at 12–13.

¹¹³ Kälin and Schrepfer, supra note 74, at 39.

¹¹⁴ McAdam, supra note 7, at 138.

¹¹⁵ SS Wimbledon, PCIJ Rep. Series A No. 1, at 25. On the independence of microstates, see Duursma, supra note 25, at Chapters 4–8; Wong, supra note 7, at 29–31.

¹¹⁶ Grant, supra note 13, at 439–40; Wong, supra note 7, at 26–8, 31 and 40–1.

¹¹⁷ Park, supra note 7, at 7 and 13–14.

¹¹⁸ Crawford, supra note 2, at 127.

¹¹⁹ Grant, supra note 13, at 449.

¹²⁰ H. Anderson, ‘Kuhn's Account of Family Resemblance: A Solution to the Problem of Wide-Open Texture’, (2000) 52 Erkenntnis 313, at 313. See also Beardsmore, supra note 81; Bellaimey, J., ‘Family Resemblances and the Problem of the Under-Determination of Extension’, (1990) 13 Philosophical Investigations 31 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹²¹ Grant, supra note 13, at 435.

¹²² Wittgenstein, supra note 78, at Section 68.

¹²³ Ibid., at Section 67.

¹²⁴ Bellaimey, supra note 120, at 33–6.

¹²⁵ Ibid., at 40–3.

¹²⁶ On the constitutive effect of recognition in this sense, see Duursma, supra note 25, at 430; Grant, supra note 13, at 447; Wong, supra note 7, at 36; Yamamoto and Esteban, supra note 96, at 183 and 212.

¹²⁷ Wittgenstein, supra note 78, at Section 67.

¹²⁸ For example, T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1970); Kuhn, T., ‘The Road Since Structure’, (1991) 2 Philosophy of Science Association 3.Google Scholar See also Anderson, supra note 120.

¹²⁹ Kuhn, Structure, supra note 128, at 197, note 14.

¹³⁰ Compare Österdahl, supra note 22, at 60. See also Higgins, supra note 24, at 39; Von Glahn and Taulbee, supra note 75, at 139.

¹³¹ Craven, supra note 21, at 159.

¹³² Österdahl, supra note 22, at 60–1.

¹³³ ILC Draft Declaration on the Rights and Duties of States, supra note 34, at 259.