The Rio Declaration on Environment
and Development: A Commentary
edited by Jorge E. Vinuales
The international community has long grappled with the
issue of safeguarding the environment and encouraging sustainable development,
often with little result. The 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development was an emphatic attempt to address this issue, setting down 27 key
principles for the international community to follow. These principles define
the rights of people to sustainable development, and the responsibilities of
states to safeguard the common environment. The Rio Declaration established
that long term economic progress required a connection to environmental
protection. It was designed as an authoritative and comprehensive statement of
the principles of sustainable development law, an instrument to take stock of
the past international and domestic practice, a guide for the design of new
multilateral environmental regimes, and as a reference for litigation. This
commentary provides an authoritative and comprehensive overview of the
principles of the Declaration, written by over thirty inter-disciplinary
contributors, including both leading practitioners and academics. Each
principle is analysed in light of its origins and rationale. The book
investigates each principle's travaux préparatoires setting out the main points
of controversy and the position of different countries or groups. It analyses
the scope and dimensions of each principle, providing an in-depth understanding
of its legal effects, including whether it can be relied before a domestic or
international court. It also assesses the impact of the principles on
subsequent soft law and treaty development, as well as domestic and
international jurisprudence. The authors demonstrate the ways in which the
principles interact with each other, and finally provide a detailed analysis of
the shortcomings and future potential of each principle. This book will be of
vital importance to practitioners, scholars, and students of international
environomental law and sustainable development.
