Legal scholars rely heavily on vocabularies of ‘actors’, ‘agents’, and ‘experts’ to account for the fact that law does not develop by itself. However, the identities, idiosyncrasies, and individual professional contributions of law'speopleare rarely illuminated. This article suggests that the relative absence of people in transnational legal scholarship helps to explain some of its gaps. The task of bringing ‘human actors back on stage’ creates some new opportunities for transnational environmental law scholarship. It invites attention to both dominant and excluded voices. It offers a way of bridging the gap between the bureaucratic language of law and its lived reality. It also provides an understanding of why, despite ferocious attempts to roll back the advances of environmental law in some places, many scholars and practitioners find reason to be optimistic about the future of environmental law.

中文翻译：

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跨国环境法的失踪人口

法律学者严重依赖“演员”、“代理人”和“专家”的词汇来解释法律不会自行发展的事实。然而，法律的身份、特质和个人专业贡献人们很少被照亮。本文认为，跨国法律学术研究人员的相对缺乏有助于解释其中的一些差距。让“人类演员重返舞台”的任务为跨国环境法研究创造了一些新的机会。它引起了对主导和被排斥声音的关注。它提供了一种弥合官僚法律语言与其生活现实之间差距的方法。它还提供了一个理解，尽管在一些地方进行了激烈的环境法进步尝试，但许多学者和从业者发现有理由对环境法的未来持乐观态度。