The Nation Ex-Situ: On Climate Change, Deterritorialized Nationhood and the Post-climate Era

It is plausible that the impacts of climate change will render certain nation-states uninhabitable before the close of the century. While this may be the fate of a small number of those nation-states most vulnerable to climate change, its implications for the evolution of statehood and international law in a "post-climate" regime is potentially seismic. I argue that to respond to the phenomenon of landless nationstates, international law could accommodate an entirely new category of international actors. I introduce the Nation Ex-Situ. Ex-situ nationhood is a status that allows for the continued existence of a sovereign state, afforded all of the rights and benefits of sovereignty amongst the family of states, in perpetuity. In practice this would require the creation of a government framework that could exercise authority over a diffuse people. I elaborate on earlier calls to use a political trusteeship system to provide the framework for an analogous structure. I seek to accomplish two quite different but intimately related tasks: first, to define and justify the recognition of deterritorialized nation-states, and, second, to explain the trusteeship arrangement that will undergird the ex-situ nation. In doing so, I introduce the notion of a post-climate era, in which the very structure of human systems-be they legal, economic, or socio-political-are irrevocably changed and ever-changing

Climate Reparations

The impacts of climate change are experienced unevenly, with the most vulnerable - the 'climate vulnerable' - set to suffer first and worst. These impacts demonstrate a grand irony: those who suffer most acutely are also those who are least responsible for the crisis to date. That irony introduces a great ethical dilemma, one that our systems of law and governance are ill-equipped to accommodate. Attempts to right this imbalance between fault and consequence result in a cacophony of political negotiation and legal action between and amongst various political scales that have yielded wholly insufficient remedies. In this article, I introduce a theory of climate reparations to meet the injuries that will result from climate change

LATE QUATERNARY CRUSTAL DEFORMATION AT THE APEX OF THE MOUNT MCKINLEY RESTRAINING BEND OF THE DENALI FAULT, ALASKA

The tallest mountain in North America, Mount McKinley is situated inside a sharp bend in the right‐lateral Denali fault. This anomalous topography is clearly associated with the complex geometry of the Denali fault, but how this topography evolves in conjunction with the adjacent strike‐slip fault is unknown. To constrain how this fault bend is deforming, the Quaternary fault‐related deformation on the opposite side of the Denali fault from Mount McKinley were documented through combined geologic mapping, active fault characterization, and analysis of background seismicity. My mapping illustrates an east‐west change in faulting style where normal faults occur east of the fault bend and thrust faults predominate to the west. These faults offset glacial outwash terraces and moraines which, with tentative correlations with the regional glacial history, provide fault slip rates that suggest that the Denali fault bend is migrating southwestward. The complex and elevated regional seismicity corroborates the style of faulting associated with the fault bend and provide additional subsurface control on the location of active faults. Seismologic and neotectonic constraints suggest that the maximum compressive stress axis rotates from vertical east of the bend to horizontal and Denali fault‐normal west of the bend

Strategic Voting and African-Americans: True Vote, True Representation, True Power for, the Black Community

As long as American politics remain securely bound to the two-party system, Blacks will remain a voting block; a block that may shift, but a block nonetheless. And although this appears to be to our strategic disadvantage, allowing conviction to direct us, as well as a deep respect for the intense struggle for the franchise, will forever be a noble posture

Loss and Damage

This article explores so-called ‘loss and damage’ as well as the emerging legal infrastructure that seeks to address it. The article concludes by identifying some of the deep points of contention in the international discourse on loss and damage, particularly regarding compensation, and considerations for a successful resolution of the impasse that loss and damage has produced

Reconciliation and Nonrepetition: A New Paradigm for African-American Reparations

The contemporary paradigm for African-American reparations fundamentally fails to address what should be its most vital component. Of the three essential elements of a successful reparations campaign-apology, award, and nonrepetition through reconciliation-the most vital is nonrepetition. In past "successful" reparations campaigns, the offending parties have issued apologies and awards, but have neither challenged nor dismantled the attitudes or infrastructures from which wrongful acts emerged, leaving open the likelihood of wrongful acts occurring again. Any campaign that neglects the nonrepetition element runs the risk of strengthening the status quo. In this Article, Professor Burkett argues that in order for a reparations campaign to be a true success for African-Americans, it must include a nonrepetition element. To do so, the reparations movement must embrace a reconciliation model that is forward looking, and concerned with the methods of deterring future bad acts for ultimate, complete, and successful repair. In the current discourse on African-American reparations, Professor Burkett argues, nonrepetition through reconciliation is woefully underemphasized. The incorporation of the nonrepetition element is particularly important in the American context. From the nation's earliest days, the American political and economic landscape has evolved in a particularly pernicious manner, creating and entrenching a racial and economic hierarchy that persistently subjugates African-Americans and other of-color and lowincome communities. Professor Burkett argues that in this context, a multiracial, multiethnic, and cross-class reconciliation model is vital to the success of the African-American campaign. This broad-based approach, the author maintains, is the only way to ensure nonrepetition

A Justice Paradox: On Climate Change, Small Island Developing States, and the Quest for Effective Legal Remedy

Despite their clear and significant vulnerability to climate change, small island developing states have not had the opportunity to pursue in earnest a remedy for the impacts of that change. All small island developing states face significant challenges to their economic well-being and the availability of basic resources-including food and water. Some face the loss of habitability of their entire territory. Identifying and implementing adequate repair will be difficult enough. After at least two decades of knowledge of these impacts, however, small island developing states still face the equally difficult task of just getting their claims heard. This is not for want of trying. Indeed, there has been extensive research and scholarship as well as abbreviated attempts in international fora to hold large emitters accountable. These have not been effective. Further, the latest attempt to clarify the legal responsibility of the largest emitters has been met with threats of reprisal by those large emitters. This kind of intimidation, coupled with a weak international legal regime at base, delays justice for small island developing states. In this article, Professor Burkett explores the failure of the legal regime to provide adequate process and substantive remedy for small island developing states-either through the absence of viable legal theories, capacity constraints, or uneven power dynamics in the international arena-or all three. She argues, however, that the costs of pursuing these claims-and other novel approaches she outlines in the article-are dwarfed by the costs to small island communities of unabated climate impacts. In surveying the possible claims and introducing new approaches, Professor Burkett attempts to respond to a striking and persistent (if unsurprising) justice paradox: the current international legal regime forecloses any reasonable attempts at a remedy for victims of climate change who are the most vulnerable and the least responsible

An Archaeological Assessment (Phase I) of the West Salado Creek Outfall Project, Southeastern Bexar County

During August 1988, a cultural resources pedestrian survey was conducted within the West Salado Creek Outfall pipeline easement (two-mile long by 50-foot wide) in southeastern Bexar County, Texas. As a result of surface examination and limited subsurface shovel tests, one prehistoric site (41 BX 785) was recorded. Although some lithic debit age and burned rock fragments were found in the shovel tests at the prehistoric site, there was not enough information from the limited tests to determine if the site is intact. Further testing is recommended to determine if the site is potentially eligible to be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places or to be designated as a State Archeological Landmark