Emissions trading schemes are often portrayed as straightforward regulatory strategies. The aim of this article is to initiate a much needed environmental law debate on this subject and defy any claims about emissions trading being unproblematic from a legal viewpoint. In doing so, I deconstruct emissions trading discourses, or more precisely, I categorise different viewpoints, as presented in emissions trading literature, in the Economic Efficiency, Private Property Rights, and Command-and-Control models. These reflect ways in which emissions trading schemes are understood in the relevant scholarly discussions. More importantly, the models show that emissions trading can be viewed through different lenses, each lens setting out a different framework through which to construct emissions trading schemes, and in particular with regard to the role of the market, the state, and emissions allowances. Thus, this article draws attention to legal complexities embedded in emissions trading discourses and shows that emissions trading schemes are complex regulatory mechanisms that require further attention from environmental law scholars.