Mr Ignacio Portela Giraldez1
1UNSW, Canberra, Australia
Biography:
Ignacio Portela Giraldez is a Ph.D. candidate at UNSW Canberra focusing on climate litigation and the law of the sea in the context of overseas countries and territories under the jurisdiction of the Council of Europe. Ignacio holds an LLM. in Comparative International and European Law from Pompeu Fabra University and Maastricht University, a Juris Doctor from the University of Puerto Rico and a double degree in law and political science from the University of Barcelona. Professionally, he worked as the Institutional Affairs Officer at the cabinet of the Catalan Minister for European Union and Foreign Action.
Abstract:
French overseas territories in the Pacific have an ambiguous and complex relationship with mainland France. Under Chapter XI of the UN Charter, France is required to act as administering power to its non-self-governing territories “whose people have not yet attended a full measure of self-government”. This lack of self-government restricts the territories’ capacity in internal and external affairs, natural resource management, and their judiciary. Certainly, in criminal matters, as in the prosecution of recent social unrest in New Caledonia their appears final authority rests in mainland France. Such judicial supremacy should also extend to these territories’ procedural guarantees, and international human rights and environmental standards with the same stringency as in mainland France. These protections should include those conferred by the Council of Europe, the European Union, and any international treaties ratified by France, like the United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). UNCLOS enshrines States’ rights regarding sovereignty over bodies of water and resource management, but also, as clarified by the May 2024 advisory opinion by the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, obligations of environmental protection in the context of climate change. Using New Caledonia as a case study, this paper examines the potential application of environmental protection obligations under UNCLOS as a means of advancing climate justice in French overseas territories in the Pacific. This paper forms part of a project aiming to provide local communities with legal strategies to enhance mitigation, adaptation and funding policies vis-à-vis mainland France.