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Transnationalism, Unilateralism and International Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2011

Gregory Shaffer
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN, United States. Email: shaffer@umn.edu. We thank Lynn Parins for his research assistance. All errors are our own.
Daniel Bodansky
Affiliation:
Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Tempe, AZ, United States. Email: Daniel.Bodansky@asu.edu.

Abstract

When we speak of transnational environmental law and legal process, we are concerned with the migration and impact of legal norms, rules and models across borders. Such migration can occur through the mediation of international law and institutions, or through the impact of unilateral legal developments in one jurisdiction that affect behaviour in others. The paper discusses the importance of assessing transnational environmental law in light of the constraints facing consent-based international environmental law, examines the trade-offs between transnational and international environmental law from the perspective of legitimacy, and concludes by discussing the important but delicate relation of international law to transnational environmental law as both a check and a consolidator. International law should guard against the self-serving unilateral use of transnational environmental law, but it should do so in a way that preserves (and does not shut off) the dynamic, responsive character of the transnational environmental law process. Otherwise international law itself will be delegitimized.

Type
Invited Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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48 Shaffer, n. 2 above, at p. 3 (‘Where the transnational legal norms are relatively clear, coherent and accepted, the transnational legal order can be viewed in systematic terms. Where they are less so, the transnational legal order is more contingent and fragile.’).