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Abstract

Armed conflicts increasingly contribute to environmental damage and climate change, yet, as proven by recent and ongoing conflicts, the legal framework for the protection of the environment under the law of armed conflict (LOAC) fails to effectively mitigate these damages. With rising temperatures, already diminishing resources, the counter-acting of mitigation and adaptation efforts due to warfare and geo-political tensions on the rise, there is a strong case for considering the potential for enhancing the protection of the environment during armed conflicts.

This Article examines the terms of applicability of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) during international armed conflicts. The article draws on Articles 3-7 of the 2011 ILC's Articles on the Effects of Armed Conflict on Treaties and the 2022 Principle 13(1) of the ILC's Principles on protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts (PERAC), which are the prevailing authorities on the subject of applicability, as well as alternative approaches to applicability brought forward post the first reading of PERAC in 2019. The Article argues that although the applicability of MEAs during armed conflict has been acknowledged, the usefulness of MEAs as a regulatory measure is limited due to the application of the lex specialis rule as the governing method for defining the relations between LOAC and MEAs in PERAC and that more recent approaches to balancing the relationship between LOAC and MEAs are either insufficient to bring about a meaningful change or are overly ambitious, risking rejection. To address the question of applicability, keeping in mind the low feasibility of change in the balance between security and environmental considerations, the paper recommends several steps to facilitate a more meaningful role for MEAs during armed conflicts.

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