Hardback
Sustainable Development Goals
Law, Theory and Implementation
9781786438751 Edward Elgar Publishing
Building on the previously established Millennium Development Goals, which ran from 2000-2015, the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the UN with a roadmap for development until 2030. This topical book explores the associated legal and normative implications of these SDGs, which in themselves are not legally binding.
More Information
Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
More Information
Building on the previously established Millennium Development Goals, which ran from 2000–2015, the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the UN with a roadmap for development until 2030. This topical book explores the associated legal and normative implications of these SDGs, which in themselves are not legally binding.
The 17 goals and 169 targets of the SDGs cover areas as crucial as poverty reduction, climate change, clean water and access to justice. Combining both thematic and goal-specific analysis, expert contributors establish the relevance not just of international law, but also of a broader range of normative frameworks including constitutional norms, domestic regulatory law and human rights. Connecting the SDGs to wider debates in international law and politics, this book ultimately demonstrates that law has an important constitutive and instrumental role to play in both implemention and analysis.
The first of its kind to offer a specific focus on the relationship between law and the SDGs, this much-needed book will prove invaluable for scholars in the field of international sustainable development. Its insightful observations will also provide food for thought for both related international organizations and national government officials.
The 17 goals and 169 targets of the SDGs cover areas as crucial as poverty reduction, climate change, clean water and access to justice. Combining both thematic and goal-specific analysis, expert contributors establish the relevance not just of international law, but also of a broader range of normative frameworks including constitutional norms, domestic regulatory law and human rights. Connecting the SDGs to wider debates in international law and politics, this book ultimately demonstrates that law has an important constitutive and instrumental role to play in both implemention and analysis.
The first of its kind to offer a specific focus on the relationship between law and the SDGs, this much-needed book will prove invaluable for scholars in the field of international sustainable development. Its insightful observations will also provide food for thought for both related international organizations and national government officials.
Critical Acclaim
‘The book is particularly innovative in its use of law and normative theory to build a coherent framework in which to work across the different SDGs. In this, contributions point to both the strengths and the weaknesses of the new SDG agenda, and to the broader limitations to the normative framework underlying the whole agenda. The central promise of the SDG agenda is to “leave no one behind”. The agenda attempts to do this by working within the new “governing through goals” structure. This book will supply both academics and policy-makers within that structure with useful discussions and analytical tools.’
– Journal of Peace Research
‘A must read for those who aim to understand the limitations and potentialities of the SDGs. Using the lens of law, this volume presents a critical analysis of whether the SDGs, rooted in neoliberalism and anthropocentrism, will be able to realize the promise that “no one will be left behind”. Or, as Long writes in his chapter, “given that our world is unjust, and a more just world is possible, what role can the SDGs play in getting there from here?”.’
– Ellen Hey, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands
‘This book addresses the questions around the importance and relevance of the SDGs that many lawyers have often wondered but struggled to articulate. It is an honest and deeply interrogated account of the different perspectives on the SDGs and the emerging trend of “governance through goals”. The editors are to be commended on their thoughtful arrangement of these discussions and views.’
– Olivia Rumble, University of Cape Town, South Africa
‘The Sustainable Development Goals aim to transform our world. Although a drastic change in the way we use the Earth is urgently needed, the question arises whether the SDG’s sufficiently facilitate such a transformation. This excellent new book, edited by the world’s leading legal scholars in the broad area of sustainable development law, provides clear answers to that pressing question and is a must read for all academics and policy-makers involved in steering human behaviour toward a more sustainable track.’
– Jonathan Verschuuren, Tilburg University, the Netherlands
– Journal of Peace Research
‘A must read for those who aim to understand the limitations and potentialities of the SDGs. Using the lens of law, this volume presents a critical analysis of whether the SDGs, rooted in neoliberalism and anthropocentrism, will be able to realize the promise that “no one will be left behind”. Or, as Long writes in his chapter, “given that our world is unjust, and a more just world is possible, what role can the SDGs play in getting there from here?”.’
– Ellen Hey, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands
‘This book addresses the questions around the importance and relevance of the SDGs that many lawyers have often wondered but struggled to articulate. It is an honest and deeply interrogated account of the different perspectives on the SDGs and the emerging trend of “governance through goals”. The editors are to be commended on their thoughtful arrangement of these discussions and views.’
– Olivia Rumble, University of Cape Town, South Africa
‘The Sustainable Development Goals aim to transform our world. Although a drastic change in the way we use the Earth is urgently needed, the question arises whether the SDG’s sufficiently facilitate such a transformation. This excellent new book, edited by the world’s leading legal scholars in the broad area of sustainable development law, provides clear answers to that pressing question and is a must read for all academics and policy-makers involved in steering human behaviour toward a more sustainable track.’
– Jonathan Verschuuren, Tilburg University, the Netherlands
Contributors
Contributors: S. Adelman, H.P. Aust, M. Barnard, L.M. Collins, N. Cooper, A. du Plessis, D. French, L.J. Kotzé, G. Long, O. McIntyre, K. Morrow, N. Sánchez Castillo-Winckels, W. Scholtz, N. Soininen
Contents
Contents:
1. Introduction
Duncan French and Louis J. Kotzé
PART I GENERAL THEMES
2. The Sustainable Development Goals, Anthropocentrism and Neoliberalism
Sam Adelman
3. The Sustainable Development Goals: An Existential Critique Alongside Three New-millennial Analytical Paradigms
Louis J. Kotzé
4. Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights: Challenges and Opportunities
Lynda M. Collins
5. Underpinning Commitments of the Sustainable Development goals: Indivisibility, universality, leaving no one behind
Graham Long
6. How the Sustainable Development Goals Promote a New Conception of Ocean Commons Governance
Nadia Sánchez Castillo-Winckels
PART II A SELECTIVE ANALYSIS OF PARTICULAR GOALS
7. Gender and the Sustainable Development Goals
Karen Morrow
8. International Water Law and SDG 6: Mutually Reinforcing Paradigms
Owen McIntyre
9. Good Urban Governance as a Global Aspiration: On the Potential and Limits of SDG 11
Helmut Philipp Aust and Anél du Plessis
10. The Environment and the Sustainable Development Goals: ‘We are on a Road to Nowhere’
Werner Scholtz and Michelle Barnard
11. Torn by (un)certainty – Can There be Peace Between Rule of Law and Other Sustainable Development Goals?
Niko Soininen
12. SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals - Cooperation within the Context of a Voluntarist Framework
Nathan Cooper and Duncan French
Index
1. Introduction
Duncan French and Louis J. Kotzé
PART I GENERAL THEMES
2. The Sustainable Development Goals, Anthropocentrism and Neoliberalism
Sam Adelman
3. The Sustainable Development Goals: An Existential Critique Alongside Three New-millennial Analytical Paradigms
Louis J. Kotzé
4. Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights: Challenges and Opportunities
Lynda M. Collins
5. Underpinning Commitments of the Sustainable Development goals: Indivisibility, universality, leaving no one behind
Graham Long
6. How the Sustainable Development Goals Promote a New Conception of Ocean Commons Governance
Nadia Sánchez Castillo-Winckels
PART II A SELECTIVE ANALYSIS OF PARTICULAR GOALS
7. Gender and the Sustainable Development Goals
Karen Morrow
8. International Water Law and SDG 6: Mutually Reinforcing Paradigms
Owen McIntyre
9. Good Urban Governance as a Global Aspiration: On the Potential and Limits of SDG 11
Helmut Philipp Aust and Anél du Plessis
10. The Environment and the Sustainable Development Goals: ‘We are on a Road to Nowhere’
Werner Scholtz and Michelle Barnard
11. Torn by (un)certainty – Can There be Peace Between Rule of Law and Other Sustainable Development Goals?
Niko Soininen
12. SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals - Cooperation within the Context of a Voluntarist Framework
Nathan Cooper and Duncan French
Index
