ABSTRACT
The norm advocating economic development in harmony with our natural environment was first spelt out in the Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 and became the normative foundation for continuous legislation in the realm of international environmental politics. The chairman of the commission, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, emphasised that while until the 1980s humanity has been concerned with the effects of economic growth on the environment,
we are now forced to concern ourselves with the impacts of ecological stress – degradation of soils, water regimes, atmosphere and forests upon our economic prospects. . . . Ecology and economy are becoming ever more interwoven . . . into a seamless net of causes and effects.2
