Transnational Sustainability Law - Whither International Environmental Law?

摘要

The state of the global environment is deteriorating despite the proliferation of international environmental law.Yet, as Reisman aptly observes, "[m]uch of the writing in contemporary international environmental law is passionately and uncritically advocative".This might be because, notwithstanding the limited success of international environmental law to date, we believe in the constructive role it can play in addressing declining global environmental conditions.3 The increasing complexity of the Earth's systems (legal and physical), however, imposes new challenges on international environmental law. New questions need to be raised and addressed to make international environmental law more effective in problem solving. For example, what are the implications of the world's transition into the "Anthropocene epoch" for international environmental law? And how is globalisation changing the ways in which international environmental law operates? These questions require a much lengthier treatment thanthe space allowed here. This article offers some preliminary thoughts on the future of international environmental law in this era of complexity, and sketches the emerging contours of what the author terms "transnational sustainability law". It is comprised of three sections, each focusing on one word of the phrase "international environmental law".