With increasing disparities between nations, worsening poverty, and divergent historical, economic and political realities the international community faces significant hurdles in crafting a common platform for environmental action. The integration of countries into international environmental regimes is a central challenge. Differential treatment refers to the use of norms that provide different, or more advantageous treatment to some states. This book explores the value of differential treatment for developing countries, and examines the basis for and boundaries of differential treatment in international environmental law.

Lavanya Rajamani, B.C.L & D.Phil. (Oxon, Rhodes Scholar), LL.M (Yale), is a Lecturer in Environmental Law, and Fellow & Director of Studies in Law at Queens' College, Cambridge. She teaches International and European Environmental Law, and conducts research in international environmental law, in particular in the areas of international climate change law and policy, trade and environment, non-state actors in international environmental governance, and the industrial-developing country dynamic in the creation and implementation of international environmental law. She has worked as a consultant to UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, the Alliance of Small Island States, the UNDP, the World Bank, and the International Institute of Sustainable Development. She is also a free-lance Project Director at the Global Environment & Trade Study, Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy.

• 1: Introduction


• 2: Differential Treatment in International Law


• 3: Dissonance in International Environmental Dialogue


• 4: From Dissonance in Dialogue to Differentiation in Law


• 5: The Doctrinal Basis for and Boundaries of Differential Treatment in International Environmental Law


• 6: Differential Treatment at Play: the Climate Regime


• 7: Developing Country Participation in the Climate Regime - Applying Common But Differentiated Responsibility


• 8: Conclusion