Facing the Legitimacy Challenge: Law As a Disciplining Force for Transnational Environmental Governance

Abstract

Transnational environmental governance has developed in part as a response to the perceived lack of legitimacy of existing national and international regulatory systems. As the geographical scope of environmental impacts seldom overlaps with jurisdictional boundaries, non-state actors have increasingly created systems of governance that exist in parallel with the state-based forms of organization. This has created increased opportunity for voice and participation but also raises questions of legitimacy. This chapter considers the role of law as a vehicle for legitimacy in transnational environmental governance, both in its own right and in relation to other sources of legitimacy. Particular attention is paid to the increasingly polycentric nature of transnational environmental governance and how this interacts with established understandings of the role of law in governance systems.

Keywords: transnational environmental law; legitimacy; polycentricity; law

JEL Classification: H4, H7, K10