ABSTRACT
There is little doubt that since its endorsement at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in 1992, the concept of sustainable development has acquired a global political and policy currency. Seventeen years later, achieving sustainability is almost universally accepted as one of the central policy objectives of the international community. Within the European Union’s (EU’s) legal order the principle has acquired a constitutional status with promoting sustainable development now identified as one of the fundamental objectives of the Union. However, while sustainable development has undoubtedly had a profound political impact, its traction on specific policy choices and legal frameworks is much more uneven and still relatively diffuse. This chapter will examine the nature and scope of the legal commitment to achieving sustainable development on the island of Ireland, focusing on its application to the highly charged issue of rural development. it begins by tracing the evolution of the principle of sustainable development from its international origins and gradual integration into the EU’s legal order, to its more recent embedding into the domestic legal frameworks on the island of Ireland. The chapter then examines the practical application of the principle in relation to the issue of rural housing which provides ones of the most potent litmus tests of Government commitment to achieving sustainable development on the island.
