Solidarity as Normative Rationale for Differential Treatment: Common but Differentiated Responsibilities from International Environmental to EU Asylum Law?

Elizabeth Mavropoulou, Evangelia (Lilian) Tsourdi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademic

Abstract

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR), though a product of the international environmental law of the 1990s, has crept into the language of most, if not all, areas of common concern at UN level. In this chapter, we trace the development and evolution of the principle of CBDR as an expression of fairness and solidarity in international law and focus on its application in international environmental law. We then further explore whether a logic of CBDR is now reflected in the recent global refugee policy instruments at UN level and whether traces of the principle can be found in EU asylum policy and the Common European Asylum System. We conclude that a logic of CBDR permeates recent asylum and refugee policy at UN and EU level, albeit manifested and operationalised in distinct ways. In the first instance at UN level, although a version of CBDR vaguely frames the non-binding responsibility sharing arrangements under the Global Compact on Refugees, it is not explicit or concrete to help us understand what a common responsibility to protect the refugees entails concretely and how such common responsibility ought to be equitably shared. Failing to explicitly debate and adopt the principle even in a soft law instrument, the Global Compact on Refugees missed the opportunity to collectivise the responsibility to protect refugees and meaningfully address the perennial gap of the Refugee Convention. In the second instance, at EU asylum policy level, the legislative developments do reflect a logic of differentiated contributions in what is conceived as a common responsibility. However, differentiation is not serving a conception of solidarity and fair sharing, but merely political expediency by endorsing certain states’ reluctance to engage with refugee protection.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationNetherlands Yearbook of International Law 2020
EditorsM. In den Heijer, H. van der Wilt
Place of PublicationThe Hague
PublisherT.M.C. Asser Press
Pages311-342
ISBN (Electronic)978-94-6265-527-0
ISBN (Print)978-94-6265-526-3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Aug 2022

Publication series

SeriesNetherlands Yearbook of International Law
Volume51
ISSN0167-6768

Keywords

  • common but differentiated responsibilities
  • solidarity
  • environmental law
  • refugee law
  • responsibility sharing
  • EU asylum policy
  • common European asylum system

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