The UK and the World: Environmental Law

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Date
2016Publisher
Kluwer Law InternationalGoogle Scholar check
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The EU has over the years engaged in extensive environmental policy action and developed considerable legislation addressing different kinds of environmental problems. The influence of EU environmental law is visible in the policies of both Member States and non-EU states and has often guided international developments in the field. Environmental law is thus a significant regulatory area in the debate on the exit of the UK from the EU because of the considerable influence of EU law on UK environmental policies and performance and because such influence would still likely occur even after a UK exit. This is true especially in relation to transboundary environmental problems and trade-related environmental measures. The expansive regulatory clout of EU environmental law often extends beyond its borders and exhibits an extraterritorial and potentially global reach that leads to implications for third countries in terms of a ‘Brussels effect’. On this basis, EU environmental law would continue, albeit more indirectly, to influence UK regulatory choices as a third country engaged in trade with the EU following the UK’s exit. The implications of this could be far-reaching with the EU having additional ways of indirectly influencing UK environmental policies and laws while at the same time the UK’s influence in formulating such extensive policies would be reduced. The EU’s expansive environmental regulatory power would also affect the UK’s position in relation to the rest of the world if it is no longer associated with the EU’s ‘green leadership’. The UK’s loss of leverage within Multilateral Environmental Agreements and its loss of regulatory influence over third country practices and policies reveal important constraints to UK unilateral action on environmental issues.