Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
Loading next page...
/lp/brill/legal-form-and-nature-of-the-paris-outcome-ZeHkGqGmSC
References
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
- Publisher
- Brill
- Copyright
- © 2016 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Subject
- Paris Agreement Articles
- ISSN
- 1878-6553
- eISSN
- 1878-6561
- DOI
- 10.1163/18786561-00601003
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
This article analyses the legal form and nature of the Paris Agreement by exploring five core issues: (1) the status of the Paris Agreement as an instrument of international law; (2) the ‘housing’ of mitigation plans, actions, and targets within or outside the treaty; (3) the prescriptiveness and precision of the wording of specific commitments and provisions; (4) the nature of the commitments, in particular result versus conduct; and (5) the provisions to ensure accountability and promote effective implementation. We argue that the Paris Agreement constitutes an international treaty whose prescriptive and precise legal obligations are primarily procedural and focused on ‘nationally determined contributions’ (on mitigation) and the core transparency framework. Many other less precise and prescriptive obligations and provisions, including a number of rather programmatic statements, are best understood as establishing a political narrative that aims to guide the implementation and future evolution of the Agreement.
Journal
Climate Law – Brill
Published: May 6, 2016
Keywords: Paris Agreement; legal form; bindingness; precision and prescriptiveness