The chapters in this section provide three geographically and temporally bounded exploratory cases of the evolving shape of legal and policy systems in the climate change context. They look back to some of the earliest modern environmental legislation—the US Clean Air Act (1970)—and forward to speculate upon the nuanced ways in which new knowledge and approaches are emerging from international, national, and local level activities to address climate change. They explore how policy, and specifically legislative, instruments are evolving and might continue to develop in ways that produce more effective, robust, and just social-environmental outcomes. A key theme unifying the chapters is how we can draw broadly upon precedents that we have set in responding to prior crises in generating responses to the climate crisis. Their authors ask us to consider the lessons we have learned over decades of environmental policy creation and enaction, which policy tools we have at our disposal, and how effective these tools have been to date in enabling climate change action. They also invite us to reflect upon what our responses to fast emerging crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic, can teach us about climate change governance and its diverse temporal and spatial impacts.