The Concept of Sustainable Development in Global Law: Problems and Perspectives

The aim of this paper is to focus on the multidimensional aspect of sustainable development and on the legal implications. Although in 1987 sustainable development was defined by the United Nations Environment Programme as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”, nowadays it lacks a more precise legal definition; therefore, legislators struggle to implement it effectively. Law should identify an adequate balance between all the different interests involved, which are the expression of the interdependence between social and economic development and environmental protection. This fascinating concept has passed from the ethics field to the legal field, and, as a global issue, it has caused interactions between international, European and national law. This process started in international context (starting from the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972), then in EU law (art. 2 TEEC, art. 1 European Landscape Convention 2000). Even if the concept of sustainable development has been included in many constitutions around the world, the lack of a precise legal definition makes it difficult to find the right balance point to identify a kind of development that can satisfy the necessities of human society. In our paper we propose to follow a two-step approach. Firstly, we will describe the evolution of the concept of sustainable development in the intersection of diverse rules stemming from different legal orders and the types of coordination between the different levels. Then we will analyse the potential synergies between these overlapping regulatory systems, in order to achieve a high level of protection for the environment as a whole and to ensure a better future to the present and new generations.