Why does increase in pressure favor formation of water in water-ice equilibrium (at 273K)? The question:

Ice and water are placed in a closed container at a pressure of 1 atm and a temperature of 273 K. If the pressure of the system is increased to 2 atm while keeping temperature constant, why does the system's volume decrease?
To answer this question, it is best to look at a phase diagram of $\ce{H2O}$. 
Note the axes are kilopascal and celsius, but we know that $0^{\circ}\text{C}=273\text{K}$ and $101\text{kPa}=1\text{atm}$. We can see that if the pressure goes up at a constant temperature, the system will move from the phase boundary into the liquid phase. 

The generally cited reason for why this occurs is that hydrogen bond network of ice makes it less dense than liquid water, and since higher pressure will favor the more dense state, the ice will melt to become liquid. This leads to a lower overall system volume.