Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum
Publication Date
1998
ISSN
1064-3958
Page Number
271
Keywords
liability for environmental damages, hazardous waste, third-party defense
Disciplines
Environmental Law | Law
Abstract
This article explores the evolution of the concept of "sustainable development" through what I suggest are the "seven degrees" of relevance of legal conceptualizations: (1) translation of concept into norm; (2) uncontestability of the norm; (3) intolerance of violation of the norm; (4) demand for fulfillment of the norm; (5) translation of the norm as policy goal; (6) policy consequences based on the norm; (7) translation into hard law to apply. I suggest that, at the time of the writing (1998), sustainable development was stuck on level five.
Recommended Citation
J.B. Ruhl,
The Seven Degrees of Relevance: Why Should Real-World Environmental Attorneys Care Now About Sustainable Development Policy?, 8 Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum. 271
(1998)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/524