International law and sustainable development. Past achievements and future challenges.

• Author: Klein Bronfman, Marcela
• Position: Rese

Edited by Alan Boyle and David Freestone. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999, 364 pp.

Alan Boyle and David Freestone's investigation is centered in a series of different approaches in relation to one main aspect: the recent and significant evolution of international law in the field of environment. The referred subject is presented by these authors through the selection of the views of various scholars, each one of them contributing with his own opinion on a specific approach, most of all in relation to the concept of sustainable development.

Although the concept of sustainable development has evolved and its importance is currently at its peak, the generation of a global awareness in relation to it has not been, as demonstrated in this book, an easy task. However, there is a feeling that States and organizations have acknowledged the importance and significance of the issue and have granted a great deal of cooperation in this matter.

Notwhistanding the latter, States still greatly resist interference from the global community in its own affairs. This is reflected in cases in which States have restricted the involvement of third States in the adoption of conservative measures over resources located in areas they consider part of their territory or that are decisive for the conservation of their national resources. For others, this is an issue that concerns all States.

The abovementioned approach is presented by Dolliver Nelson in his article entitled "The Development of the Legal Regime of High Fisheries ". The main subject of his analysis is the policy of coastal States in the discussion that arose within the framework of the International Law Commission, with respect to State's special interest in the conservation of living resources in the seas adjacent to its coast. At the time, this area was considered an area of high seas. In this respect, there a group of States that nationals of all States could freely fish in the high seas, thus prohibiting coastal States from adopting conservation measures in that area. On the other hand, the coastal States' position of having exclusive control over the referred area finally prevailed, giving rise to the 200 mile maritime zone, and allowing coastal States to exercise conservationist measures without the involvement of third countries.

Dolliver Nelson provides a wide and detailed overlook of the discussion between States in connection with the one specifically for the carrying out of...