2021 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 3(2) assumption that if an LLIS were to lose its statehood, its former nationals would then qualify under the definition of stateless person found in the 1954 Convention: For the purpose of this Convention, the term ‘stateless person’ means a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law.11 The resulting ‘climate statelessness’ is accepted by most scholars.12 This conclusion is also supported by the statement of a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (‘UNHCR’) Expert Panel on the concept of a stateless person under international law: When applying the definition it will often be prudent to look first at the question of ‘State’ as further analysis of the individual’s relationship with the entity under consideration is moot if that entity does not qualify as a ‘State’. In situations where a State does not exist under international law, the persons are ipso facto considered to be stateless unless they possess another nationality.13 Beyond the link between statehood and statelessness however, the relevance of the latter is defined by the timeline of events relating to the former. Professor Jane McAdam, who led the discussions in the UNHCR panel mentioned above, identifies the gap between the physical disappearance of a LLIS and the recognition by the international community that the state in question has ceased to exist as one of the main obstacles to the law on statelessness playing a role in the protection of the former state’s nationals.14 It should be noted that the present article focuses exclusively on the 1954 Convention and intentionally avoids engaging with the possible relevance of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.15 While the latter certainly bears some relevance to the plight of those vulnerable to climate change, the context of this relevance is fundamentally quite different to the type of scenario in which the 1954 Convention could come into play and to the protection it provides (ie assuming the loss of the concerned LLIS’s statehood). Therefore, this choice is not motivated by a lack of relevance, but rather by the approach adopted by this piece.16 Moreover, in the context of this article, the ‘law on statelessness’ refers primarily to the 1954 Convention. Using the law on statelessness as a protection framework for EDPs is not an unexplored option, but it has so far essentially been deemed a dead end by most 11 12 13 14 15 16 ibid art 1(1). Alejandra Torres Camprubí, Statehood under Water — Challenges of Sea-Level Rise to the Continuity of Pacific Island States (Brill Nijhoff 2016) 198–200; Alice Edwards and Laura van Waas (eds), Nationality and Statelessness under International Law (Cambridge University Press 2014) 5; Susin Park, Climate Change and the Risk of Statelessness: The Situation of Low-Lying Island States (Background Paper No PPLA/2011/04, Division of Internal Protection and UNHCR, May 2011); Marija Dobrić, ‘Rising Statelessness Due to Disappearing Island States’ (2019) 1(1) Statelessness and Citizenship Review 42, 52–53. Walter Kälin instead argues that the loss of nationality cannot be assumed to be automatic: Walter Kälin, ‘Conceptualising Climate-Induced Displacement’ in Jane McAdam (ed), Climate Change and Displacement. Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Oxford University Press 2010) 81, 101. Expert Meeting on the Concept of Stateless Person under International Law (Summary Conclusions, UNHCR, 28 May 2010) 2 (emphasis in original). McAdam, ‘Forced Migration’ (n 6) 142. Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, opened for signature 30 August 1961, 989 UNTS 185 (entered into force 13 December 1975) (‘1961 Convention’). For a broader approach to the issue of ‘climate statelessness’ under the two statelessness conventions, see Dobrić (n 12). 290