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Sustainable Development in International Environmental Law

2020:1944) and tasks such as environmental protection are accepted by the
elements of international law, and thus sustainable development should be
acknowledged as a principle of law (Skalar 2015:88).
Similarly, Voigt evaluates sustainable development as a general principle
of law in accordance with Article 38 of Statute of International Court of
Justice, and considers the ambiguous structure of the concept as a natural
consequence of its being a general legal principle. In addition, according
to Voigt, there is a normative gravitational force arising from the integrative
structure of sustainable development (Voigt 2009:162).
Lowe accepts that there is a legal dimension to sustainable development,
but argues that the concept does not meet the necessary conditions to become
a principle of customary law (Lowe 1999:26). Contrary to Weeremantry, Lowe
asserts that the need for a principle that harmonizes conflicting concepts such
as environmental protection and development does not give a normative value
to the concept of sustainable development (Skalar 2015:91). It is suggested
that sustainable development still needs a long improvement process in order
to implement the concept of intragenerational and intergenerational equity
and to be based on decisions by the courts (Lowe 1999:26). Contrary to these
views, Lowe again argues that sustainable development is not completely
far from a normative structure For the relevant judgement of International
Court of Justice on the dispute, see. ICJ Reports of Judgements 1997, Case
Concerning the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project, Hungary vs. Slova- kia, https://
www.icj-cij.org/en/case/92, (Last Access Date: 9.12.2022) but in the process
of gaining normativity with the practices of decision makers. In other words,
according to Lowe, sustainable development is not an essential source of law,
but an interpretation tool of the international judge (Boyar 2020:1937).
Beyerlin also evaluates that this concept is a political ideal due to the
variable content and scope of sustainable development, but it is available to
allow the emergence of legal norms from it (Beyerlin 2007:447).
Birnie and Boyle, while evaluating sustainable development as a recent
developing field of international law, have argued that there is no obligation
yet and that the authority to decide what is sustainable belongs exclusively to
governments (Birnie and Boyle 2002:98).
Cordinier Segger and Khalfan, on the other hand, do not accept sustainable
development as a binding legal principle today, but they also do not regard
sustainable development as a political goal (Skalar 2015:93).

3. Criticism towards Sustainable Development
Taking into account the generally accepted definition of sustainable
development principle as “a development model capable of meeting today’s

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