Transnational Environmental Regulation and Governance

Transnational Climate Law

“…70 A challenge for lawyers is that there are often no obvious answers or solutions to be found by simply applying legal doctrine when discussing questions of hierarchy and the conflict or simple co-existence of norms in the legal landscapes governing climate issues today. 71 Project-level studies of climate law transactions illustrate this reality up close. Tracing the relevant legal frameworks applicable to a Clean Development Mechanism project leads to a lengthy list of 'relevant law' ranging from international law sources, to the domestic law of the host country and possibly the purchasing country, to the key contract itself (the Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreement) invoking both contract law and private international law rules, and specifically referencing formal or informal best practice standards, all the while subject to tax and accounting rules.…”

Governing Intersystemic Systemic Risks: Lessons from Covid and Climate Change

“…34 The key point about transboundary risks is that the regions that are negatively impacted depend at least partially on cooperation by the risk creator in order effectively to control the risk. 35 In the case of climate change, this dynamic is most starkly documented in the plight of small-island states such as Tuvalu and Vanuatu, which find themselves at existential risk of disappearance yet powerless to respond without a dramatic surge in commitment on the part of high-emitting countries across the globe. 36 With respect to zoonotic diseases, too, risks emerging within one jurisdiction jeopardise the safety of surrounding countries, and the level of risk to which the latter are exposed will be heavily influenced by the willingness and capacity of the source country to share information, to control the risk internally and to cooperate in the implementation of transnational containment measures.…”

Earth System Law for the Anthropocene

“…Such a progression would necessarily also imply a deliberate rejection of law's virtually exclusive focus on "hard", enforceable, state-made law, by embracing instead a more normatively plural collection of alternative "softer" norms that are made, used and revised by various actors other than the state, and that operate at multiple scales. The steady emergence of the idea of transnational environmental law and governance is an example of the type of juridical innovations that could drive such transformations [69]. Temporally, Earth system law will have to better realign short term benefits with long-term impacts [6] (p. 48).…”