Suchergebnisse

Climate change raises a number of drastic environmental changes, such as soil erosion, water shortages, water contamination and deforestation, which leads people to leave their homes and seek livelihood in other places within or outside their own country. Perhaps the most obvious reason why people are forced to flee for environmental reasons is the rising sea levels and subsequent flooding. The IPCC has estimated that sea levels will rise between 28 and 43 centimeters in the next 100 years. It has also estimated that regional variations in the increase of sea levels mean that some small island states are particularly hard hit in terms of loss of land area. Adapted from the source document.

Two main arguments are presented in this article. First, when alternatives for the future of local government is debated, two questions need to be addressed simultaneously: (a) "how many & how big municipalities ought we have?", & (b) "how strong & well secured ought the principle of local self government be in the constitution?". Second, by using these questions as guides for the analysis, we argue that there are instrumental reasons to guarantee a strong local self-government in the constitution. However, such a reform needs to be complemented by a politically neutral body of regulations that, under given conditions, secures geographically concentrated minorities a right to secede. Adapted from the source document.