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Environmental Sustainability as a Human Right

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Legal Aspects of Sustainable Development

Abstract

Sustainability means capable of being sustained. The term sustainable development is introduced under this concept to ensure that rapid development takes place in harmony with nature; and natural resources such as forest and water resources can be sustained for future users. Within the legal fraternity, the word ‘sustainability’ has seeped into the legal discourses as to whether it can be regarded as a legal principle which can be used and argued upon in the court of law. This chapter highlights on prospect and challenges of establishing environmental sustainability as a valid legal principle. It focuses on the concept of environmental jurisprudence and how environmental sustainability can be regarded as a human right or a right to life under a country’s constitution. The paper concludes that this can be done through judicial activism and by relaxing the doctrine of legal standing.

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Correspondence to Rasyikah Md Khalid .

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Md Khalid, R., Jalil, F., Bin Mokhtar, M. (2016). Environmental Sustainability as a Human Right. In: Mauerhofer, V. (eds) Legal Aspects of Sustainable Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26021-1_5

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