THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN INTERNATIONAL PRACTICE

Sustainable development has become a term of common use: it is used by governments, policy makers, academics, businessmen, press. It pervades the environmental, social, legal, political, economic, and cultural discourses, from the local to the 'global' level, in both the public and private sectors. This expression is commonly used to describe a process of human development through which resources are used to meet human needs while preserving the quality of natural environment in order to ensure that its ability to provide goods and services to the current and future generations is not undermined. The conception, articulation and dissemination of SD is the result of a process lasted more than thirty years and mainly led by United Nations, which has brought it at the heart of a wide number of regulations and policies adopted at the international but also at the national level. The aim of the seminar was to outline and analyze how this concept has evolved in international practice, how it has changed and expanded since its first appearance in the international arena. To this aim the presentation has analysed the development of the concept on SD in the international arena from the eighties untill till these days. In doing so, attention will be focused on a few cross cutting issues: - Evolving and multidimensional character of sustainable development - Sustainable development and international law - Nature of the concept of sustainable development - Examples from international practice - Role of ICT for SD