When does a state cease to be a state? Traditionally, international law recognizes a nation state as having a population, land, a functioning government and the capacity to engage in international relations.

But what does this mean for the status of small nation islands at risk of losing their territory and population due to climate change? This is a very real question for nations such as Tuvalu, which has already taken steps to preserve its statehood in the event that rising sea levels and extreme weather events mean that the physical territory it sits on needs to be abandoned. It has secured an agreement with Australia to ensure it will continue to be seen as a state and is digitizing the country, moving government online and creating a virtual archive of its territory and culture.

“The aim is for Tuvalu to continue existing as a state even when climate change has forced its population into exile and rising seas have done away with its land. It says it will be the world’s first digital nation,” write Avidan Kent and Zana Syla.

Tuvalu isn’t alone, Kiribati, the Maldives and Marshall Islands, among others, are also looking at the issue – as is the International Court of Justice, which recently noted that “once a state is established, the disappearance of one of its constituent elements would not necessarily entail the loss of its statehood.”

But does that ensure statehood for low-lying coastal nations no matter what? Kent and Syla suggest that a closer reading of the ICJ statement “suggests that the court stopped short of explicitly confirming that the flexibility of the term ‘statehood’ could be stretched so far as to mean a state could exist even if completely submerged under the seas.”

Elsewhere this week, we have been explaining how the Trump administration is changing U.S. capitalism and looking at the legality of Israel’s “double tap” attacks.