Year: 2023
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Implementation of international and supranational provisions on sustainability and participation takes place in the domestic legal orders. Yet, questions of sustainability and participation are mostly approached from the level of international law or regional law (like EU law) – disregarding the fact that legal orders have known similar concepts mostly as part of their nature protection or resource management laws before 1980 or have introduced them as a reaction to the Brundlandt report, the Rio Declaration or an increasing degradation of the environment and irreversible loss of natural resources. It therefore seems important to look at the various models on how to integrate the goal of “sustainable development” or of “sustainability” into a legal order and on how to make it work in the daily business of administration, sometimes relying on participatory instruments. This contribution analyses the manifestations of sustainability, participation and their interconnection in various national constitutions and administrative laws, covering Brazil, South Africa and Namibia, Germany, New Zealand and a variety of other Latin American jurisdictions. The comparative analysis serves to tell us about different interpretations under different constitutional settings, about models of linking participation to sustainability in order to promote environmental protection and ways to control adherence of the state and private parties to environmental regulation. Different from international treaties and supranational law, national administrative law is directly applicable and able to govern behaviour in the respective legal order. The analysis hints at a prevalence of the “green leg” of sustainability, with social and economic aspects being part of a balancing process.
Source: Brill | Nijhoff eBooks
Author: Eva Julia Lohse
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4383227800