The Judicial Development of Ecologically Sustainable Development

The concept of ecologically sustainable development (ESD) or sustainable development has been around for at least three decades. The task of instilling ESD and its principles with legal rigour has generally fallen to the judiciary. The judiciaries of the world have, through their decisions, cast some light on the concept of ESD and have answered to varying degrees some of the questions about the concept and the principles of ESD and how and when they should be applied. These judicial decisions have explicated the spare skeleton of ESD, filled the interstices, and put flesh on the skeleton. In these ways, judicial decisions are developing a body of jurisprudence on ESD. This paper sketches some of the ways in which the judiciary, through their decisions, have found, interpreted and applied the concepts of ESD in adjudicating environmental disputes according to law. The first concerns the meaning of the concept and the principles of ESD. Do they set substantive outcomes or only processes or both? The second concerns the interrelationship between the concepts and principles of ESD, in particular how ESD is to be achieved through application of the principles of ESD. The third concerns the interpretation and explanation of the principles of ESD. The fourth concerns application of the concept and principles of ESD to differing types of disputes. In these ways, this paper will explain the judicial development of ESD and its principles. These judicial pronouncements are neither complete nor comprehensive. There is still further work that needs to be done to fill in the gaps and bring the whole picture of the meaning of the concept and principles of ESD into full view. Nevertheless, by their decisions so far, courts have contributed to the development and implementation of environmental law