Introduction

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INTRODUCTION
Increasingly, every environmental lawyer is becoming an international envi-
ronmental lawyer.
Until recently, international environmental law was largely the focus of
diplomatic discussions, treaty negotiations, and academic debates of interest
to a particular group of passionate and patient attorneys working for gov-
ernments and international non-governmental organizations. Unlike the
rapid and real time implementation of federal and state environmental laws
and regulations, the success of international environmental laws was fre-
quently measured in decades or generations, not years. And the topics at
issue largely concerned obligations and commitments of sovereign nations,
with only indirect interest or impact on specific companies responsible for
much of the environmental issues being addressed.
Recent developments, however, have thrust international environmental
law issues from strictly a foreign arena onto the front doorstep of attorneys
practicing environmental law from regional cities to small manufacturing
towns. The rapid globalization of developing world economies, the increas-
ingly international nature of energy markets, and growing concern over
global environmental challenges such as climate change are driving funda-
mental changes to the practice of environmental law.1 Companies—and, in
turn, the clients we represent—are almost necessarily multinational by nature
and are confronting a rapidly emerging and confusing regime of interna-
tional environmental laws here, there, and everywhere in between. Mean-
while, nations who have prioritized growing their economies without
protecting their environment along the way are waking up to dangerous
skies, polluted water, rapid resource depletion, and the struggles of climate
change adaptation. While some nations have been lax in developing and
enforcing environmental law regimes so far, the trends are all toward more
rigorous requirements being implemented.
Thus, every environmental lawyer increasingly must become an interna-
tional environmental lawyer, regardless of where they practice and who they
represent, to be positioned to fully represent their clients on matters that are as
fundamental, if not more so, to their interests as any domestic environmental
law. In upcoming years, multinational companies are likely to face more rap-
idly developing, rigid, complex, and confusing environmental requirements
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