The Transnationalisation of Law: Rethinking Law Through Transnational Environmental Regulation (original) (raw)
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The meanings of transnational environmental law
Research Handbook on Transnational Environmental Law, 2020
Human pressures on the environment increase continuously and thresholds critical to the stability of the life-support functions of the planet have been, or are on the verge of being, exceeded. 1 In this context, environmental lawyers have started to reflect on how inadequate legal systems have contributed to global environmental crises while, at the same, nurturing the hope that new legal forms will provide solutions to the sustainability challenges we are facing. As a relatively new field of law, environmental law is still maturing, which means that it remains faced with significant methodological questions and is prone to existential anxieties. 2 In addition to trying to make sense of itself as an established yet still somewhat fluid legal discipline, environmental law must operate in a context of significant legal transformation arising from the need to respond to an increasingly complex society, which brings about significant intellectual as well as practical challenges for the legal field. Certainly, the nature of environmental challenges profoundly disturbs existing legal institutions. 3 As a result, the traditional foundations of 'law' have found themselves challenged by new modes and structures of governance, acting in synergy, but also sometimes in opposition, with existing structures. 4 The relativization of boundaries has led to the emergence of a variety of theoretical frameworks seeking to explain these phenomena. 5 Amongst them, transnational law has developed into a discipline which offers a theoretical framework able to identify and explain the normative complexities arising from intensifying cross-border activities. Such promise has attracted a number of scholars and educators, eager to better understand processes that their own field of enquiry-ranging from commercial law 1
Ten Years On: Rethinking Transnational Environmental Law
Transnational Environmental Law, 2021
This issue brings to a close the first full decade of Transnational Environmental Law (TEL). It is sobering to consider the shape of the world in 2011 and to remember our ignorance of the events to come. The global stage is always a roiling mix of disparate forces, but between the ascendance of the populist right, COVID-19, Brexit, the rise and decline (and rise?) of ISIS, and the ongoing escalation of climate-related emergencies, it seems that TEL's initial ten years witnessed more than their share of global turmoil. In strictly legal terms there were unexpected developments that became core areas of relevance to this journal. The emergence of environmental litigation in China, for example, has been a striking shift, the magnitude of which could not easily have been foreseen at TEL's inception. 1 The 'rights of nature' as a feature of legislation and constitutional law, though emergent in the 2000s, has bubbled to the surface in additional jurisdictions over the last decade, 2 and the Paris Agreement 3 marked a significant departure from earlier approaches to climate change under international law. 4 1
The Methodologies of Transnational Environmental Law Scholarship
Transnational Environmental Law, 2023
Transnational environmental law scholarship employs diverse methodologies to examine and analyze a complex and evolving field. The articles featured in this issue of Transnational Environmental Law (TEL) cover a wide range of environmental problems, including protection of the marine environment, 1 air pollution, 2 and the energy transition, 3 and evaluate the roles of a variety of actors in environmental governance, including courts, 4 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), 5 and Indigenous and local communities. 6 Despite their apparent diversity, they share significant commonalities related to their methodologies. Collectively, these methodologically sophisticated research designs contribute to a deeper understanding of transnational environmental law and facilitate the development of novel strategies for enhanced sustainability. It has been argued that environmental law scholarship 'remains somewhat traditional' because, as with most areas of legal scholarship, it is generally based on desk-based research. 7 While the articles in this issue of TEL confirm the centrality of desk-based research, they also reveal innovative ways of undertaking such research and evidence a consolidating interest in empirical work. This issue is indeed a striking illustration of the range of lenses and methods used by TEL authors. Some articles use new doctrinal concepts to understand existing legal mechanisms and their shortcomings, 8 while others 1
Broadening the Branches and Deepening the Roots of Transnational Environmental Law
Transnational Environmental Law, 2021
The year 2020 has been one of extraordinary tumult and change. At the beginning of the year, few could have predicted how the COVID-19 pandemic would so radically pervade every aspect of human lives and livelihoods, with profound implications for how people live, love, move, work, and connect in our societies. 1 The pandemic has also vividly illustrated our global interconnectedness, as well as the ways in which an initially localized problem can come to transcend international boundaries, with national, provincial, and local implications. The various environmental challenges examined in this issuefrom climate change to biodiversity to persistent organic pollutantsare similarly cross-sectional in nature and effect. For example, like the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change is recognized as a truly global problem, yet one with myriad distinctive impacts and policy responses in different regions, countries, and localities. 2 The systemic nature and impacts of environmental problems are some of the features of environmental research that prompted the development of the new discipline of transnational environmental law. 3 Research in this area simultaneously requires a broader lens to take into account many different branches of law and policy, and a deepening of study to understand how problems manifest at multiple levels of governance. It is a mission to which this journal, as it enters its tenth cycle, is fully dedicated. Indeed, all contributors to this issue in their respective articles provide evidence of this simultaneous broadening and deepening in their exploration of the diverse compartments that make up the wider ecosystem of the study of transnational environmental law.
Law Beyond Borders: Transnational Responses to Global Environmental Issues
Transnational Environmental Law, 2012
We are very pleased to have this opportunity to reflect on the meaning and value of transnational environmental law. In refining our views, we have benefited greatly from the diverse viewpoints presented on this question by other contributors to this issue. 1 We will draw upon three of the invited articles to frame our perspective on transnational environmental law: Douglas Kysar's 'Global Environmental Constitutionalism: Getting There from Here'; Robert Lee's 'Look at Mother Nature on the Run in the 21 st Century: Responsibility, Research and Innovation'; and Ludwig Krämer's 'Transnational Access to Environmental Information'. From here, we will illustrate the global relevance of transnational approaches by reference to a brief analysis of the complexities of climate change adaptation. The link between transnational environmental law and climate change governance is more obvious in the case of mitigation, where effectiveness is predicated on globally, or at least transnationally, concerted action. 2 Transnationality, however, also characterizes legal regimes for climate change adaptation. With adaptation, the optimal level for adaptation actions varies and will often be at the local level. Yet, whether at the local, regional or international level, climate change adaptation regimes are influenced by transnational legal developments and pose significant transnational challenges, making a transnational perspective fruitful, if not essential. As an approach to law, transnational environmental law is not merely the domain of advocates of international or global environmental action. Instead, it is a way of looking at environmental law as an interconnected and interactive global network in response to interconnected, and often global, challenges.
The American Journal of International Law, 2013