ABSTRACT
Environment is one of a number of areas of public-policy concern where recent developments have been rather rapid. It is also an area - like consumer protection and occupational safety and health - where compliance with new governmental regulations has fundamentally affected the economics of production and consumption. As in these other fields, environmental policy is essentially a national issue, because environmental problems that are directly international in character - e.g. atmospheric and ocean pollution - comprise a relatively small part of the whole, and because institutions that might address themselves effectively to transfrontier questions are only now beginning to emerge. The fact of national sovereignty in environmental policy, when coupled with its economic consequences, leads directly to repercussions on international economic relations.
