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The choice of the legal basis for a given measure can influence the procedure by which legislation is adopted, and thereby the scope and content of EU policy. The ambiguity surrounding the choice of legal basis for environmental acts based in Articles 130s and 100a opened the way for a 'legal-basis game', where EU institutions chose the legal basis partly on the basis of political considerations. In the period 1987–93, the two most important legal bases for environmental acts (Articles 130s and 100a) were subject to very different procedures for adoption (unanimity and qualified majority voting, respectively). From 1993 onwards, both articles were subject to qualified majority voting. After a general discussion of the choice of legal basis and its significance for policy, this paper examines the choice of legal basis for environmental legislation during the period 1987–99. I conclude that, although the legal-basis game is played out with respect to certain acts, there is little evidence that it is a regular and systematic feature of the policy process in the EU.

Cover -- The Globalization of Liberalism -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Notes on the Contributors -- Introduction -- Part I Understanding International Liberalism -- 1 Moral Commitment and Liberal Approaches to World Politics -- 2 The Harvard School of Liberal International Theory: A Case for Closure -- 3 A Kantian Protest against the Peculiar Discourse of Inter-Liberal State Peace -- Part II Globalization and Liberalism in Contemporary International Relations -- 4 Liberalism at the Global Level: Solidarity vs. Cooperation -- 5 At Home Abroad, Abroad at Home: International Liberalization and Domestic Stability in the New World Economy -- 6 Globalization, Market Civilization and Disciplinary Neoliberalism -- 7 Global Civil Society: An Ethical Profile -- 8 'A Project to be Realized': Global Liberalism and a New World Order -- Part III International Relations beyond Europe -- 9 China and Global Liberalism -- 10 International Human Rights Norms and the State in Egypt and Tunisia: Globalization, Liberalism and Culture -- 11 Neoliberalism, Globalization and Resistance: The Case of India -- Index.

Norway is often recognised as a pioneer country in environmental politics. Norwegian climate policy has changed considerably during the 1990s. It has evolved from a situation in 1989 where there was a broad consensus round the notion that a national target for stabilisation of CO2 emissions was the principal instrument for climate change abatement, to a situation at the turn of the century where Norway emerged as one of the most committed supporters of flexible mechanisms, the so-called 'Kyoto mechanisms'. We identify two main discourses in the Norwegian politics of climate change, and label them 'national action' and 'thinking globally'. This paper gives insight into the core elements of these two discourses and how they act as basic knowledge systems when actors put forward standpoints on the climate change issue.