Transnational Environmental Law and ‘Other’ Environmental Laws

• Published in: Transnational environmental law Vol. 8; no. 3; pp. 393 - 397
• Main Authors: Etty, Thijs, Heyvaert, Veerle, Carlarne, Cinnamon, Huber, Bruce, Peel, Jacqueline, van Zeben, Josephine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.11.2019
• Subjects: Burning; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Crises; Customs; Deforestation; Editorial; Enforcement; Environmental impact; Environmental law; Fisheries; Fishing; Forest & brush fires; Forest fires; International law; Land clearance; Land clearing; Legal research; NGOs; Nongovernmental organizations; Policies; Rainforests; Regional development; Sharks; Sovereignty; Tourism; Transnationalism; Indian Ocean
• ISSN: 2047-1025; 2047-1033
• DOI: 10.1017/S204710251900030X

INTRODUCTION As this editorial is being written, the news of the day is filled with discussion of an unfolding environmental crisis: massive forest fires burning in the Amazon rainforest, potentially crossing a crucial ‘tipping point’ for the ecosystem,1 and endangering global climate change mitigation efforts.2 In August 2019, more than 27,400 fires were detected in the Amazon, burning on a scale not seen since 2010.3 The deforestation that fuels the fires has been encouraged by the policies of the new Brazilian government of President Jair Bolsonaro, which has hobbled environmental law enforcement designed to control land clearing by farmers, loggers, and others.4 Pledges of aid from the international community to fight the fires in Brazil have poured in, including from the G7 summit states convening in Biarritz (France),5 as well as from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Earth Alliance co-funded by the high-profile actor and celebrity, Leonardo DiCaprio.6 The Bolsonaro government has reportedly rejected the G7 aid package as an attempt to interfere in Brazilian sovereignty,7 but has said it wants to work with other Amazonian states to develop a regional approach for the protection and development of the forest.8 The Amazonian crisis provides a stark illustration of the limits of a binary national/ international law perspective as a means to understand the role of law in responding to global environmental issues. TEL, and the transnational environmental law scholarship it has fostered, expands the realm of possibilities for investigating the role of law in dealing with environmental crises such as the burning of the Amazon, from purely national or international actions to those ‘beyond the state,’ and from a focus only on state actors to a range of other non-state actors, public and private, located at multiple levels of governance, who play different roles.9 The continuing growth and impact of TEL attests to the relevance and importance of transnational environmental law as a field of study and practice that can help us better understand the legal response to global environmental problems. Writing in a later article for the inaugural issue of TEL, Yang posited GEL as the product of various globalizing trends that have created greater integration and convergence between previously separate systems of national and international environmental laws.11 This development, Yang argued, was relevant not only as a theoretical concept, but also for ‘the actual practice of environmental law’.12 However, even in these early conceptions, GEL appeared to have a normative underpinning through its emphasis on global-level responses as ideal or at least necessary for both substantive and moral reasons.13 Later contributions on GEL, including several featured in this journal, have fleshed out its normative dimensions through discussion of topics such as global environmental constitutionalism.14 The Symposium Collection on GEL in this issue continues this tradition, deepening our understanding of this field. ‘The variances in the laws’, Techera writes, ‘are likely to relate at least in part to underlying cultural diversity, given the history of customs and practices surrounding sharks in the Pacific and the history of shark fishing in the Indian Ocean’.22 Following the approach of transnational environmental legal research, Techera's study extends beyond formal, black-letter fisheries rules to consider non-consumptive shark-related policies, including those pertaining to marine tourism and human safety, as well as the issues of implementation, compliance, and enforcement that are crucial to the actual impact of a given management approach.