The Nature, Origin and Impact of Legally Binding Consequences: The Case of the Climate Regime Anita Halvorssen 3 , 2 , 1 AMHalvorss@aol.com Jon Hovi 5 , 4 jon.hovi@stv.uio.no 1 Global Legal Solutions, LLC, 1745 Gillaspie Dr., Boulder, CO 80305, USA 2 College of Law, University of Denver, 2255 E. Evans, Denver, CO 80208, USA 3 Department of Political Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, Campus Box 333, Boulder, CO 80309-0333. USA 4 Corresponding author, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1097 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway, telephone +4722855192, fax +4722854411 5 CICERO (Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo), P.O. Box 1129 Blindern, 0318 Oslo, Norway Word count (excluding front page and abstract): 7012 Acknowledgements We are grateful to Jutta Brunnée, Fred Menz, Detlef F. Sprinz, Olav Schram Stokke, Geir Ulfstein and Jake Werksman for helpful comments.