Sustainable Development

In 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, commonly known as the “Earth Summit”, the concept of sustainable development received the approval of over 140 governments. Despite the general agreement, there are hundreds of formulations of sustainable development, each reflecting particular values and priorities.

One way sustainable development may be described is “development that meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” Brundtland Report, 1987.

Sustainable development requires the integration of three pillars, social justice, economic growth and environmental protection. However, it is not simply a goal, it is also a process. Sustainable development has significant procedural elements. It ought to be done through empowerment, consultation, impact and risk assessment, the expansion of opportunities and capacities and public participation.

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Sustainable Development Law

Sustainable development law is found at the intersection of three principal fields of international law: international economic law, international environmental law and international social law. Sustainable development law refers to emerging substantive body of legal instruments, norms and treaties, supported by distinctive procedural elements.

In international treaty law, sustainable development is an agreed objective of many international treaties, both at the global and regional levels. As such, sustainable development can be considered part of the ‘object and purpose’ of a growing number of treaties, and therefore directly relevant in the interpretation of their provisions. The concept appears, often as an objective or preambular reference, in most international statements and declarations related to environmental, social and economic issues since the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit. It has also featured as an object and purpose of many international economic, social and environmental treaties involving developed and developing countries, as a concept which guides the decisions of international courts and tribunals, and the holdings of judges in national courts around the world.

In particular, the concept of sustainable development can be considered part of the object and purpose of many international treaties, including the 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity, its 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and its 2010 Nagoya Protocol, the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the 1994 UN Convention to Combat Desertification and Drought, the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, the 1995 Straddling Fish Stocks Agreement of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the 2000 Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the African Caribbean and Pacific countries, the 2001 International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and many others. In each treaty, the sustainable development objective is worded slightly differently, and also operationalised differently.

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M.C. Cordonier Segger & A. Khalfan, Sustainable Development Law: Principles, Practice and Prospects (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

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2002 New Delhi Declaration on the Principles of International Law Related to Sustainable Development

After ten years of study and exchange, the International Law Association Committee on the Legal Aspects of Sustainable Development released the 2002 New Delhi Declaration on the Principles of International Law Related to Sustainable Development, which identifies seven principles in particular, without claiming to be exhaustive.

The principles are:

For further information and commentary on each principle click here.