Adopting a holistic and multidisciplinary approach, this expertly crafted book comprehensively maps out the complex multi-jurisdictional legal landscape pertaining to the EU’s circular energy system. Offering in-depth critical analysis, it identifies several areas of law and policy that require further scholarly inquiry to ensure the creation of an effective policy framework which can facilitate the move from a linear to a circular energy system. In three thematic sections, the expert contributors first examine the interactions between EU law and policy for waste, agriculture, food and forestry. Focus is then drawn to how, when, and by whom the energy sources created from biowaste can become part of the EU’s energy mix. A range of legal instruments that impact the financing of the circular energy system through taxation, EU financing, and state aid are also considered. The book concludes by reflecting on inefficiencies and ineffectiveness caused by these interactions of legal and policy areas related to the circular energy system. This insightful and progressive book will be of great interest to practitioners and policymakers looking to better understand the legal complexities of implementing a circular energy system. It will also prove an essential read for scholars and students interested in environmental law, energy law, European law, and affordable and clean energy studies.

Governments have at their disposal a broad range of policy instruments that they may use to influence behaviour and pursue environmental policy goals. This volume of the Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law is a comprehensive guide to these environmental policy instruments, examining their characteristics, applications, strengths and limitations, as well as giving an overview of the most significant issues related to their adoption and effectiveness. With entries written by leading international scholars, this incisive volume provides insight into the cross-cutting issues that are common to discussions of such policy instruments, including the legal bases for their use, how instruments can be compared for costs, distributional questions, and monitoring and enforcement. Contributions also explore hybrids and blends of policy instruments and explain the relationships between them, using case studies and examples from around the world, as well as providing succinct summaries of the substantial literature in the field. Students and scholars in environmental law will find this volume to be an invaluable resource, for both its solid theoretical foundations and its analysis of undertreated issues in the field. Its discussion of how and why each policy tool might be used is particularly relevant for policymakers and practitioners. Contributors include: A.D.K. Abelkop, C. Coglianese, M.A. Cohen, D.H. Cole, C.M. Correa, N. de Sadeleer, R.C. Feiock, P.Z. Grossman, N. Gunningham, S. Hayes Richards, M. Howlett, S.-L. Hsu, B. Huber, O. Karassin, B.C. Karkkainen, S.E. Light, L.M.J. McCann, J.E. Milne, I. Mukherjee, E.W. Orts, O. Perez, K.R. Richards, T.M. Roberts, A. Rowell, S. Roy, J.P. Shimshack, H. Sigman, D. Sinclair, S. Starobin, S.E. Weishaar, E. Woerdman, H. Yi, J. van Zeben

Written by two internationally respected scholars, this unique primer distills European Union environmental law and policy into a practical guide for a nonlegal audience, as well as for lawyers trained in other jurisdictions. The first part explains the basics of the European legal system, including key actors, types of laws, and regulatory instruments. The second part describes the EU's overarching legal strategies for environmental management and delves into how the EU addresses the specific environmental issues of pollution, ecosystem management, and climate change. Chapters include summaries of key concepts and discussion questions, as well as informative "spotlights" offering brief overviews of topics. With a highly accessible structure and useful illustrative features, A Guide to EU Environmental Law provides a long-overdue synthetic resource on EU environmental law for students and for anyone working in environmental policy or environmental science. This text can also be read with the authors' A Guide to US Environmental Law for a comparative look at how two important jurisdictions in the world deal with key environmental problems.

The European Union's Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is the world's largest carbon trading market. This book offers a new perspective on the EU ETS as a multi-level governance regime, in which the regulatory process is composed of three distinct 'competences' - norm setting, implementation, and enforcement. Are these competences best combined in a single regulator at one level of government or would they be better allocated among a variety of regulators at different levels of government? The combined legal, economic, and political analysis in this book reveals that the actual allocation of competences within the EU ETS diverges from a hypothetical ideal allocation in important ways, and provides a political economy explanation for the existing allocation of norm setting, implementation and enforcement competences among various levels of European government.

Written by two internationally respected scholars, this unique primer distills European Union environmental law and policy into a practical guide for a nonlegal audience, as well as for lawyers trained in other jurisdictions. The first part explains the basics of the European legal system, including key actors, types of laws, and regulatory instruments. The second part describes the EU's overarching legal strategies for environmental management and delves into how the EU addresses the specific environmental issues of pollution, ecosystem management, and climate change. Chapters include summaries of key concepts and discussion questions, as well as informative "spotlights" offering brief overviews of topics. With a highly accessible structure and useful illustrative features, A Guide to EU Environmental Law provides a long-overdue synthetic resource on EU environmental law for students and for anyone working in environmental policy or environmental science. This text can also be read with the authors' A Guide to US Environmental Law for a comparative look at how two important jurisdictions in the world deal with key environmental problems.

Supranational governance is being challenged by politicians and citizens around the EU as over-centralized and undemocratic. This book is premised on the idea that polycentric governance, developed by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom, is a fruitful place to start for addressing this challenge. Assessing the presence of, and potential for, polycentric governance within the EU means approaching established principles and practices from a new perspective. While the debate on these issues is rich, longstanding and interdisciplinary, it has proven difficult to sidestep the 'renationalisation/federalisation' dichotomy. The aim of this volume is not to reject the EU's institutional structure but provide a different benchmark for the assessment of its functioning. Polycentric theory highlights the importance of multilevel horizontal relationships within the EU - between states, but also between many sub-state actors, all the way down to individuals. This helps us answer the question: how do we achieve self-governance in an interdependent world?

Written by two internationally respected authors, this unique primer distills the environmental law and policy of the United States into a practical guide for a nonlegal audience, as well as for lawyers trained in other regions. The first part of the book explains the basics of the American legal system: key actors, types of laws, and overarching legal strategies for environmental management. The second part delves into specific environmental issues (pollution, ecosystem management, and climate change) and how American law addresses each. Chapters include summaries of key concepts, discussion questions, and a glossary of terms, as well as informative "spotlights"-brief overviews of topics. With a highly accessible structure and useful illustrative features, A Guide to U.S. Environmental Law is a long-overdue synthetic reference on environmental law for students and for those who work in environmental policy or environmental science. Pairing this book with its companion, A Guide to EU Environmental Law, allows for a comparative look at how two of the most important jurisdictions in the world deal with key environmental problems.

Written by two internationally respected authors, this unique primer distills the environmental law and policy of the United States into a practical guide for a nonlegal audience, as well as for lawyers trained in other regions. The first part of the book explains the basics of the American legal system: key actors, types of laws, and overarching legal strategies for environmental management. The second part delves into specific environmental issues (pollution, ecosystem management, and climate change) and how American law addresses each. Chapters include summaries of key concepts, discussion questions, and a glossary of terms, as well as informative "spotlights"-brief overviews of topics. With a highly accessible structure and useful illustrative features, A Guide to U.S. Environmental Law is a long-overdue synthetic reference on environmental law for students and for those who work in environmental policy or environmental science. Pairing this book with its companion, A Guide to EU Environmental Law, allows for a comparative look at how two of the most important jurisdictions in the world deal with key environmental problems.