This special issue explores the interrelationship between global economic interests and local ecological interests, and its implications in law. Along this axis, it seeks to examine not only the capacity of global forces to subjugate local interests in responding to territorially confined threats, but also the extent to which solutions to global environmental problems may depend on local action. It analyses the impact of globalization on legal structures and their ability to accommodate local concerns, and considers whether globalization, and the elimination of national borders, actually offers an opportunity to reassert the power of local and regional governance.