Lavanya Rajamani

Lavanya Rajamani is a Professor of International Environmental Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, and Yamani Fellow in Public International Law, St Peter's College, Oxford. She was formerly a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, where she now holds a Visiting Professorship. Before that she was a University Lecturer in Environmental Law, and Fellow & Director of Studies in Law at Queens’ College, Cambridge. Lavanya holds an LLM from Yale, a DPhil and BCL from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes scholar, and a B.A.LL.B. (Honours) from National Law School, Bangalore, where she graduated at the top of her class with several gold medals.

Lavanya writes, teaches and advises on international environmental law, in particular international climate change law and policy. Her latest book is the second edition of the Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law (August, 2021) which she co-edited with Jacqueline Peel, University of Melbourne. Her previous book titled, 'Innovation and Experimentation in the International Climate Change Regime', based on a Special Course she delivered at the Hague Academy of International Law, was published in March 2020 as part of the Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law/ Receuil des Cours. Her book ‘International Climate Change Law’ (Oxford University Press, UK, 2017),  co-authored with Daniel Bodansky and Jutta Brunnée won the 2018 American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit in a Specialized Area of International Law. Her other books include ‘Promoting Compliance in the Emerging Climate Regime (CUP, 2011, co-editor), ‘Implementation of International Environmental Law’ (Hague Academy of International Law, 2011, co-editor), ‘Climate Change Liability: Transnational Law and Practice’ (CUP, 2011, co-editor), ‘Differential Treatment in International Environmental Law’ (Oxford University Press, UK, 2006, author), and she has numerous peer-reviewed articles in law and inter-disciplinary journals.

Lavanya was a KFG Senior Research Fellow at the Berlin-Potsdam Research Group ‘The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline?’ and a Sir Frank Holmes Visiting Fellow at the University of Victoria, Wellington. She has held visiting Professorships and taught courses on public international law at Ashoka University, India; international environmental law on the MBA in Green Energy at the Bologna Business School; international climate change law at the National University of Singapore and the University of Aix-en-Provence;  human rights and environmental law on the Masters in International Human Rights Law at Oxford; and human rights and climate change law on the Melbourne Law Masters (MLM).

Lavanya serves as Coordinating Lead Author of the chapter on ‘International Cooperation’ in the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She has also served as Rapporteur for the International Law Association’s Committee on Legal Principles Relating to Climate Change, and as Research Director for the Hague Academy of International Law’s Centre for Studies and Research.

Lavanya’s academic work on the international climate change regime is informed by extensive practice. She has worked on and tracked the climate negotiations in different capacities, including as a negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, and legal advisor to the UN Climate Secretariat, the Danish Ministry of Climate Change and the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests. She was part of the UNFCCC core drafting and advisory team at the 2015 Paris negotiations, and, was identified by Climate Home News as one of the ‘Women to watch ahead of the UN’s 2015 Climate Summit.’ She is also involved in differing capacities, but in particular in providing the evidence base, in current and prospective climate cases before national and international courts. She is currently external counsel supporting the Government of Vanuatu in its pursuit of an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice on the climate crisis.