The Laws of Sustainable Development

Abstract

This chapter provides a summary overview of the international laws of sustainable development. It remedies other scholarly efforts which either zoom in on one specific legal principle, or cover all but in a very lengthy fashion. It reviews the principles in legally detailed yet understandable fashion. The paper aims to show how an international policy developed on the premise of individual principles, risks being tripped up on the implications of the set of principles as a whole. For a fruitful roll-out of sustainable development strategies, including those purporting to implement the UN’s SDGs, a coordinated approach is required. The contribution aims to introduce the reader to the overall international legal framework which accompanies policies on sustainable development. It takes the 1992 Rio Declaration and its 20+ 2012 follow-up as a starting point. It selects its most relevant principles and explains what they mean not just as such, but particularly in how these principles impact upon the development of policy. The main theoretical background of the paper is the 1992 Rio Declaration and the 20 years update in 2012. These two instruments also fed into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs. The overall theoretical framework of the paper however are the principles of Public International Law, espoused by the Community of. Many of us will have experienced the law, and lawyers, to be both enablers and party spoilers. Enablers, since successful application of the law and the professions which administer it (private counsel, police officers, judges…) grant a citizen, a State, a company etc. a solid title with which to change or maintain one’s status in society. Party spoilers, since the same application by someone else, may jeopardise a lucrative, comfortable, safe etc. position. This contribution summarily reviews the law of sustainable development from an international law perspective. Its target audience is distinctly non-legal although those lawyers less involved in international environmental issues (which form a core part of sustainable development) may find it a useful quick guide to this more or less young body of international law. A serious policy cannot function if the legal context is not properly understood. A proper understanding of the principles discussed in the paper, assists governments with the roll-out of practical and legal solutions for sustainable development.