Deep ecologists and other eco-purists might consider the notion of sustainable development an oxymoron, stodgy professors of law might think of it as being rooted in theoretical obscurity, and reactionary diplomats might suggest it to be an affront to national sovereignty, but this monograph is certain to disabuse all those naysayers of their misplaced and counter-productive assumptions. It was the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) that through its ground-breaking 1980 World Conservation Strategy precisely articulated and developed in detail the concept of conservation for sustainable development, defining it at the time as ‘the management of human use of the biosphere so that it may yield the greatest sustainable benefit to present generations while maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations’. That aspiration, so important for the long-term well-being of humankind, was subsequently adopted and widely publicized in 1987 by the UN World Commission on Environment and Development, with the somewhat more succinct definition of ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.

Nico Schrijver, a world-renowned authority on international environmental law, here offers the reader a detailed analysis of the concept of sustainable development in all of its diplomatic and legal dimensions, with emphasis on its historical antecedents (those, quite interestingly, reaching back at least as far as 1882), its various interpretations and extensions, its relationship to the underlying principles of international law, its legal evolution (both via the ‘soft law’ of UN Resolutions and the ‘hard law’ of international treaties and international case law), its current broadened and deepened status in international law and policy (with some coverage of national law as well), and, in closing, even touching upon the formidable diplomatic challenges its pursuit is sure to face in the years to come.

Schrijver reminds us that international law on the one hand reflects the values and norms of society, and on the other provides a regulatory framework for the conduct of the global community of sovereign states. Thus it is most heartening to learn from him that the body of law herein so carefully reviewed and analysed demonstrates that sustainability is fast becoming one of the core values of the international community, thus on a par with such related emerging values as peaceful co-existence and human rights. Indeed, this recognition provides further confirmation that social security (with its human rights, economic and military components) and environmental security (with its preservation, conservation and use components) are inexorably intertwined, with neither attainable unless both are.

I have several minor quibbles with the presentation. First, numerous commendable quotations in support of sustainable development are presented from the preambles of multilateral treaties, however, without ever noting that these are not a binding component of those instruments. Second, the many treaties not yet in force being offered to support acceptance of notions of sustainable development ignore the possibility (even likelihood) that a significant number of them will never enter into force, indeed, perhaps owing in part to their position on sustainable development. Third, with the ever worsening global over-population being one of the root causes of humans' likely inability to ever actually achieve sustainable development, there might have been some mention of the relevant positions and efforts, albeit modest, of the UN Population Fund. And fourth, unlike the author, I consider the outcome of the UN 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development in the last analysis to have been a substantial reversal in the progressive acceptance of sustainable development.

The text is extremely well organized and the information admirably presented and meticulously annotated (the author here displaying an encyclopaedic knowledge of the relevant legal and diplomatic literature). The 2002 declaration on the principles of sustainable development of the International Law Association is usefully appended in toto, which boils down this concept into seven principles, each of which is therein succinctly explained, including its contribution to the progressive development of the underlying legal and cultural norms (in addition to having been analysed in detail by the author in the main text, especially so for the ‘precautionary principle’). And the book has been made quite ‘user friendly’ by providing a list of the abbreviations used in the text, an annotated table of the treaties to which reference is made, a similar table of the international and national legal cases mentioned, and a select bibliography. However, sadly missing is an index. That said, this tightly written monograph should certainly occupy an important niche on the shelf of all lawyers and diplomats dealing with international environmental law; it will additionally serve the needs of both scholars and high-echelon practitioners in the burgeoning field of environmental conservation.