REENGINEERING THE STATE IN THE CLIMATE- DIGITAL ERA: INFORMATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE FUTURE OF DETERRITORIALIZED PEOPLES

Abstract

The imminent physical disappearance of island states such as Tuvalu (Polynesia), due to rising sea levels, presents an unprecedented challenge to state theory and international human rights law. Territorial submersion threatens to disrupt the classical elements of statehood – people, territory, and sovereignty – while simultaneously fostering digital governance structures aimed at preserving institutional continuity and national identity. This article analyzes the case of Tuvalu as an emerging paradigm of a climate-digital state, whose existence shifts from physical materiality to an informational and institutionally distributed configuration. It examines the international normative vacuum surrounding deterritorialized peoples and the lack of legal recognition for so-called climate refugees. Therefore, unprecedented conceptual and normative frameworks are proposed: the recognition of the Continuous Digital State; the creation of an International Statute for Dispossessed Peoples; and a Permanent Climate Protection Visa. The article argues that reengineering the State in the climate-digital era is not merely a conceptual evolution but a structural imperative to prevent collective statelessness and serious human rights violations. Tuvalu emerges as the first laboratory of a new global constitutionalism, demanding urgent and institutionally innovative legal responses.