Legal Form of the Paris Agreement and Nature of Its Obligations

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Legal Form of the Paris Agreement and Nature of Its Obligations

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Bodle, R., Oberthuer, S., 2017. Legal form of the Paris Agreement and nature of obligations, in: Klein, D., Carazo, M.P., Doelle, M., Bulmer, J., Higham, A. (Eds.), The Paris Agreement on Climate Change: Analysis and Commentary. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, pp. 91–103. https://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law/9780198789338.001.0001/law-9780198789338-chapter-5

This chapter, by Dr. Ralph Bodle and Dr. Sebastian Oberthür, addresses the legal aspects of the Paris Outcome and its particular obligations. It emphasises the importance of distinguishing between the legal form and structure of the Paris Agreement as a whole and the specific content of its individual provisions and elements. The Paris Agreement is after all an international treaty at the core of a regime that includes other elements with different legal status. Hence, this chapter first analyses the legal structure of the overall Paris Outcome in terms of the legal status of the different texts, how they are linked, and how they together form the new climate regime. The chapter then looks at the structure of the Paris Agreement's content, i.e. how its individual provisions work together. Finally, it provides a bird's eye view of the legal nature of individual sections and provisions, and concludes with some further insights.

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English
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The Paris Agreement on Climate Change: Analysis and Commentary
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Dimension
13 pp.
ISBN
9780198789338
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Keywords
Climate change, environmental disputes, treaties, binding force, interpretation, general principles of international law
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