"Dimming the Sun": Does Unilateral Stratospheric Sulfate Injection Breach Jus Cogens?
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: “Stratospheric Sulfate Injection” (SSI) is an emergent technology that is meant to reduce global warming by blocking incoming sunlight, in particular, by injecting sulfate particles into the stratosphere. Once SSI gets started, it is necessary to keep injecting every 1-2 years; otherwise, the cooling effect will disappear and there will be sudden and potentially catastrophic global warming. Even though the effects are global, SSI can be deployed by a single state or small group of states acting alone and likely would be deployed in this way. There is currently no consensus among lawyers and judges as to whether such “unilateral” deployment of SSI would be legal under international law. The profession therefore requires a comprehensive study of the legal implications of unilateral deployment of SSI. To fill this gap, my thesis asks, “Does unilateral deployment of SSI breach international law?” Examining theories of international law, legal and political philosophy, and the science of SSI, I argue that deploying SSI unilaterally breaches a fundamental jus cogens (“compelling law”) norm of international law: the inherent right of self-defence. This norm entails a prohibition on what I call “perfect capture,” which happens when a foreign state appropriates and permanently monopolizes a domestic state’s responsibility to protect its population. Perfect capture violates the inherent right of self-defence because it represents a state’s renunciation of its capacity to make decisions affecting the survival of its population. Thus, insofar as it constitutes perfect capture, unilateral deployment of SSI grants a single state or small group of states more arbitrary power over the existential conditions of other states than is compatible with the premises of a pluralist international legal order.
Author: Jonathan A. Weiss
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2255422095