STANFORD JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 132 I. IN TRO D U C T IO N .................................................................................................. II. DEFINING THE SINKING STATE.......................................................................... III. THE CASCADING CONSEQUENCES OF SINKING STATES .................................... A. B. C. D. Redefining Statehood .................................................................................. Undermining Sovereign Equality of States ................................................. Humanitarian Crisis ..................................................................................... Collapse of the International Legal Order .................................................. 59:2 132 135 140 146 154 158 167 IV.CRACKS IN THE FOUNDATION ........................................................................... 170 A. The State-Centric Model ............................................................................. 171 B. Retrenchment from Lawmaking .................................................................. 181 C. Addressing the Cracks ................................................................................. 183 V. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... I. 185 INTRODUCTION In November of 2021, the Foreign Minister of Tuvalu, Simon Kofe, ad- dressed the United Nations COP26 climate conference in Glasgow via a pre-recorded video.' He stood in front of a blue screen at a lectern in a suit, flanked by the flags of the conference host, Great Britain, and the United Nations. The shot widened to reveal that he was standing in water with waves crashing around his legs.2 Standing on the outskirts of the nation's capital where land had disappeared under the sea,3 Foreign Minister Kofe described the threat that Tuvalu faces due to sea level rise. For Tuvalu and three other atoll states-Kiribati, the Maldives, and the Marshall Islands-the threat is nothing short of existential.4 While many places around the world are only starting to feel the impact of climate change through rising temperatures, heat waves, and extreme weather, these four states are already ' Tuvalu Minister to Address Cop26 Knee Deep in Water to Highlight Climate Crisis and Sea Level Rise, GUARDIAN (Nov. 8, 2021), https://perma.cc/NVG9-T6H7. 2 'We are Sinking': Tuvalu Minister Gives Cop26 Speech Standing Knee Deep in Seawater- Video, GUARDIAN (Nov. 9, 2021), https://perma.cc/BCU2-39MC. 3 Forty percent of the central district of Funafuti is below sea level at high tide. Hon. Kausea Natano, Tuvalu Prime Minister, Tuvalu National Statement for the World Leaders Summit (Nov. 2, 2021) (transcript available at https://perma.cc/PZX5-B9PV). 4 Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Maldives, and the Marshall Islands are four states most at risk of becoming completely submerged by sea level rise. ALEJANDRA TORRES CAMPRUBI, STATEHOOD UNDER WATER: CHALLENGES OF SEA-LEVEL RISE TO THE CONTINUITY OF PACIFIC ISLAND STATES 103 (2016). Tuvalu has a land area of thirty square kilometers and its maximum height above sea level is five meters. Tuvalu SPCMember Map, PAC. CMTY. (Aug. 9, 2022, 4:25 PM), https://perma.cc/JQY5-3PWE [hereinafter Tuvalu Map]. The Marshall Islands has a land area of 180 square kilometers with a maximum height above sea level of 10 meters. Marshall Islands SPC Member Map, PAC. CMTY. (Aug. 9, 2022, 4:28 PM), https://perma.cc/WFY9-Y3WL [hereinafter MarshallIslands Map]. The highest point in the Maldives is less than three meters above sea level, the "lowest highest point . . . in the world." Ken Jennings, Maphead: Ken Jennings Finds the World's Lowest Highest Point, TRAVELER (May 14, 2012), https://perma.cc/M8Z7-LF3C; Andrew Evans, Climbing the Highest Point in the Maldives, NAT'L GEOGRAPHIC (Nov. 5, 2013), https://perma.cc/9G9Q-MTAT. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4321214