Author: Francisco Javier Sanz Larruga, Professor of Administrative Law of University of A Coruña (Spain)
Reception date: April 21st, 2011
Acceptance date: April 29th, 2011
Doi: https://doi.org/10.56398/ajacieda.00198
Abstract:
The successful formulation of the sustainability paradigm – in its many aspects: environmental, social and economic- spreading in many programmatic and strategic documents of international organizations and national governments carried out in the context of the present economic crisis, sets out important problems of legal interpretation when it comes to introducing them uncritically in standard-setting instruments.
Sustainable development is not a mere conceptual resource derived from the new trends on environmental economy but a real legal principle that can be translated into important requirements and mandates aimed to the rational use of natural resources and its protection on the future generations.
If the aim is to achieve efficiently these objectives, the reception of the sustainability criteria – or at least the environmental ones- in the legal system must be ensured taking into account the particular architecture and the systematic character of each of the normative groups in which the reception is introduced.
