The Regime of International Law

Abstract

To structure the articulation of general conclusions concerning the role of international law and the legal process within the international regime of transboundary environmental protection among CEE states, this chapter first explains the nature and operation of international regimes and the role of law as a constituent element of the regime of transboundary environmental protection, including its relation to other constituent elements such as social norms, international organizations, state actors and state policies, and the identifiable interests of sub-state actors and sub-state actor transnational networks. Particular attention is paid to situating this discussion within the current intellectual debate among social science scholars as to the way in which the power relationships among states are regulated and whether international law plays a role in shaping the manner in which a state exercises its political and economic power. This chapter then combines the observations derived from the secondary and primary case studies with the select work of regional specialists, political and social scientists, and legal scholars to identify and articulate the functions served by international law during the different phases of the dispute resolution process.