ABSTRACT
The most important issue in international environmental governance is not the making of environmental rules and laws, but how such rules and standards can be enforced. It has long been argued that many environment disputes are non-zero-sum games and that they can be settled more effectively by dialogic, negotiated, and managerial, rather than adversarial, approaches. While consensus building and mediative processes are still mostly public processes, there is growing evidence that private environmental dispute resolution can bolster effectiveness. Private parties set up private regimes to use supply chain contracts, loan agreements, codes of conduct commitments, and tiered dispute resolution to demand environmental standards and enforcement. As many continue to deny climate change (the current United States administration) and withdraw from public commitments (such as the Paris Climate Accord) it remains to be seen how formal and informal processes can be used to effect environmental change.
