This is an introduction to the special issue on environmental laws and sustainability of the on-line peer review journal, Sustainability. In this introduction, we attempt to synthesize key lessons from the issue’s ten substantive articles. These lessons involve the use of law to achieve...

This article argues that a key to sustainability is redirecting the law of economic development. From a historical perspective, sustainable development is an effort to integrate environmental protection and restoration with development. As a result, it is not possible to fully understand...

Integrated decisionmaking is the foundational principle of sustainable development. Other principles, including the precautionary approach or principle, intergenerational equity, and public participation, all depend on integrated decisionmaking. Unsustainable development results from the...

This article explains why states and localities need to be full partners in a national climate change effort based on federal legislation or the existing Clean Air Act. A large share of reductions with the lowest cost and the greatest co-benefits (e.g., job creation, technology development,...

Sustainable development would require the United States to maintain and improve human prosperity while at the same time greatly reducing its consumption of energy, materials, water, and land. The scope of the challenge includes, but is not limited to, climate change. This Article suggests the...

This essay aims to persuade the U.S. environmental law profession that sustainable development is important to them, in their various roles as advocates, counselors, and citizens. Sustainable development is increasingly important to their clients, businesses, causes, or communities. As federal,...

The article explores what we can learn about sustainable development, and the progress the United States has already made or not made, by looking at citizen suits under United States environmental law. The article focuses on four aspects of citizen suits: the manner in which they allow access to...

This article outlines what sustainable development means when applied to industry, the necessity for sustainable industry, and how sustainable industry can change and is already beginning to change the debate about pollution control. While it is possible for industry to have a positive impact,...

This Article explains how and why sustainable development emerged as a conceptual framework, the basic concepts or principles on which this framework is based, why sustainability is primarily a matter for domestic national governance, and why the United States needs to play a leading role in...

This is a review of United States sustainable development efforts at the national level from 1992-2002. At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, the United States and other countries agreed to develop and implement a national sustainable development strategy in...