Transnational Environmental Law in action: The European Union's sustainable biofuels experiment

Abstract

Sustainable biofuels certification is an example of hybrid governance that locates authority, implementation and enforcement by state and non-state actors across borders. The emerging concept of 'transnational environmental law' seeks to explore such forms of regulation beyond the state. This article argues that 'transnational environmental law' provides a holistic perspective that breaks free of bounded notions of 'law' and the 'state' to capture the realities of social ordering (to address environmental challenges) at the periphery, instead of the traditional political centers of states and international organizations. However, this does not mean that the involvement or influence of states is diminished in any way. In the case of sustainable biofuels certification, states play an important role in creating incentives for other actors such as the market and civil society to play a role in global environmental regulation and orchestrating such multi-actor and multi-level regulatory arrangements.