Transnational Environmental Law on the Threshold of the Trump Era

Since its inception Transnational Environmental Law (TEL) has focused on the complex web of interactions across national borders in addressing environmental issues, including but going beyond the traditional domain of international environmental law. The content of TEL has been diverse but has encompassed several pervasive themes: mutual influence between legal systems, multilevel integration, regime fragmentation and overlap, and the erosion of traditional hierarchies, as governance frameworks evolve against a backdrop of uncertainty, contestation and unpredictable change. The last of these factors, unpredictable change, is vividly illustrated by the historical context in which this issue will appear, with that change taking the form of Donald J. Trump’s ascension to the United States (US) presidency. Although the final shape of Trump’s policy agenda is not yet clear at the time of this writing, all indications suggest a sharply different US role in terms of international environmental law. As a candidate, Trump expressed disbelief in the reality of climate change and pledged to repudiate the Paris Agreement and to repeal the Obama Administration’s signature regulation of carbon emissions, the Clean Power Plan. Trump’s cabinet nominees have close connections with the fossil fuel industry, and nearly all have a history of denying the reality of climate change. Most strikingly, his nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also expressed doubts about the reality of climate change and is best known for suing the EPA to halt climate and air pollution regulations. Thus, although Trump has proved