JavaScript: Reference a functions local scope as an object

No, there's no way to reference the variable object of the execution context of a function binding object of the variable environment of the execution context (that's what that thing is called [now; hence the strikethrough]; details in §10.3 of the specification). You can only access the limited view to it you get with arguments (which is very limited indeed).

Usually when I've wanted to do this, I've just put everything I wanted on an object and then used that (e.g., passed it into a function). Of course, any functions created within the context have access to everything in scope where they're created, as they "close over" the context; more: Closures are not complicated.

I know this is hugely late, and you're probably not even slightly interested any more, but I was interested in the feasibility of this too and you should be able to make a work around of some sort using:

(function(global) {
    var testVar = 1;

    global.scope = function(s) {
        return eval(s);
    }
})(this);

then running:

scope('testVar'); // 1

returns the variable from within the closure. Not particularly nice, but theoretically possible to wrap that in an object, perhaps using some validation and getters and setters if you needed?

Edit: Having re-read the question, I assume you'd want to access it without having to specify a function in the scope itself, so this probably isn't applicable. I'll leave this here anyway.

Certain versions of Netscape had a magic property in the arguments object that did what you're looking for. (I can't remember what it was called)