Environmental law: Transnational enforcement of rules to protect the environment

Protecting our vital natural resources poses major challenges for policy- and law-makers. This applies particularly to transboundary environmental problems and global climate change: once emitted, pollutants do not stop at borders and the globalised economy causes significant environmental harm. Mechanisms that are effective at the transboundary and often also the global level are therefore required.

Despite a growing awareness of the importance of protecting the environment and climate, numerous gaps still persist in international environmental law – and even where international rules exist, their implementation often leaves much to be desired.

Environmental law interacts in multiple ways with environmental policy, or “governance”, as it is also called.