The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law

The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law takes stock of the major developments in international environmental law, while exploring the field's core assumptions and concepts, basic analytical tools, and key challenges. It is intended to serve as an authoritative and indispensable overview of the field.

Although the handbook focuses on international environmental law, it also examines the subject from a broader policy and theoretical perspective, drawing on insights from other disciplines such as political science, economics, and philosophy. It aims to strike a balance between practical preoccupations and critical or theoretical reflection. Each chapter examines an issue that is central to current scholarly debates or policy development. At the same time, The Handbook is structured as a whole to provide readers with both a 'bigger picture' of international environmental law and a more in-depth understanding of its preoccupations. This approach is particularly important at a time in the development of international environmental law when its fragmentation into increasingly specialized sub-fields obscures unifying themes and cross-cutting challenges.

The Handbook consists of 47 chapters in seven parts. Part I sets the stage for the Handbook, identifying overarching issues. Part II offers readers a range of theoretical lenses through which to analyze both the problems facing international environmental law and the solutions it may offer. Part III reviews the treatment of basic issues areas. Part IV analyzes the process of normative development in international environmental law. Part V will assess key theoretical concepts. Part VI examines the roles of various actors and institutions. And Part VII analyzes issues of implementation and enforcement.


The Oxford Handbooks Series is a major new initiative in academic publishing. Each volume offers an authoritative and state-of-the-art survey of current thinking and research in a particular subject area. Specially commissioned essays from leading international figures in the discipline give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates. Oxford Handbooks provide scholars and graduate students with compelling new perspectives upon a wide range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences.

Jutta Brunn?e is Professor of Law and holder of the Metcalf chair in Environmental Law at the University of Toronto. Her teaching and research areas are in Public International Law and International Environmental Law.

Daniel Bodansky is Woodruff Professor of International Law, School of Law, University of Georgia

Ellen Hey is Professor of Law and Deputy Director, GLODIS Institute, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands