International law, climate change and the Antarctic Treaty System: re-contemplating governance questions apropos of the mounting challenges

Abstract

More than 60 years since it entered into force in 1961, the Antarctic Treaty is experiencing significant challenges. These challenges also affect its associated instruments known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). These are mostly external dynamics that are increasingly challenging the ATS from outside of the Antarctic region. They encompass a spectrum of issues relating to global legal regimes and to what extent they are applicable in the Antarctic context. Climate change appears to be the most significant of these challenges, as the tangible planetary impacts of global warming and the perception of its urgency and seriousness by states have prompted additional challenges to the ATS. The physical changes that continue to be scientifically unveiled in the Antarctic are manifesting severe impacts on a planetary scale, and this fact has underscored the need for broader and more rapid international engagement within the Antarctic governance discourse. Nevertheless, the existing decision-making mechanisms compounded by the adversarial atmosphere within the ATS due to external factors have become challenges of themselves. Such challenges call for the re-contemplation and reassessment of the legal regime of the Antarctic in general, and the ATS in particular, to find ways forward for an otherwise historically effective international legal system. This paper utilizes both scientific and legal lenses to underscore the urgent need to achieve better communication between the ATS generally, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings specifically and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change regimes and to overcome the multiple barriers that stand in the way of achieving that objective.