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Sustainable Development in International Environmental Law

Carson’s book Silent Spring, which describes the destruction of bird life due
to the widespread use of Dichloro-Diphenyl Trichloroethane (DDT), a very
toxic insecticide (Gedik 2020:199).
Although the first examples of sustainable development concept in the scope
of a legal order in modern times were encountered in German forestry law in
18th century, it is generally accepted that it emerged after the middle of the
20th century (Güneş 2021:82). However, the Bering Sea Arbitration by the end
of the 19th century is considered as an important landmark in the emergence
of the sustainable development concept. The crew of three British ships were
arrested by US authorities for overfishing in the international waters offshore
the Pribilof Islands under the control of the USA in 1886, and their captain was
judged and punished by the USA officers. In the aforementioned dispute, the
US arguments are specified as; the earth is the permanent habitat of mankind
and all generations have the right to use it, but they should avoid destruction,
and nature should be protected for the common benefit of humanity even
beyond the outer limit of the three-mile territorial sea (Skalar 2015:28).
In the following years, the concept of sustainable development was
included in the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling
dated 1946 and its Supplementary Protocol, and The Convention of Fishing
and Conservation of the Living Resources of the High Seas dated 1958.
Another important development in the process of adopting the sustainable
development concept is the Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act, which is
one of the basic regulations of the United States in the field of forestry was
published in 1960 as one of the first legal regulations based on the concept of
sustainable development (Güneş 2021:83).

In 1962, the United Nations General Assembly emphasized in the Resolution
no. 1831 on “Economic Development and Conservation of Nature” that it is
undesirable for states to implement economic and environmental policies
separately while continuing the development (Skalar 2015:19). On the basis
of this decision, UNESCO called for making domestic legal regulations aimed
at the conservation and rational use of natural resources and, organized the
Intergovernmental Experts Conference on Biosphere in 1967 in cooperation
with other specialized organizations such as FAO and WHO (Schrijver 1997:114).
Due to the impact of these developments, Sweden called for the convening
of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1968 (Skalar
2015:19). The sustainable development concept was also addressed in the
African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
signed in the same year. Upon the call of Sweden, the Conference on the
Human Environment was organized by the United Nations in Stockholm in
1972 and the concept of sustainable development was discussed at the UN for

Year 2 / Issue 3 / January 2023 41