The Emergence of Transnational Environmental Law in the Anthropocene

Abstract

The concept of the Anthropocene invites us to think more critically about law and environmental governance and whether environmental law is well equipped to respond to the challenges of the Anthropocene. In the exploration for alternative forms of governance to supplement traditional inter-state law making, the concept of the “transnational” has gained traction in environmental law scholarship. This chapter seeks to explore how a shift from international environmental law to transnational environmental law (TEL) may provide us with a more nuanced approach as we consider how we should deal with the effects of global human-induced environmental change. To explore the potential of TEL to provide a more appropriate response to the complex challenges of the Anthropocene, this chapter uses the European Union’s (EU) sustainable biofuels regulatory regime as a case study to illustrate how TEL works in practice.

Keywords: Transnational Law, Environmental Governance, Law, Anthropocene, biofuels, European Union, legitimacy