Back to the Future: the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and its Principles in their 25th anniversary with a Spanish perspective

Abstract

The Rio Declaration and its principles had a ground-breaking impact in international law as well as in domestic legal orders. They went beyond their soft-law nature and became a normative horizon that has guided the evolution of international environmental law. Some of the principles then became customary law and others found their way into international agreements. Changes in the global scenario have led to their revision in the form of an affirmation of the principle of sovereignty "taking into account national circumstances" and responding to challenges of implementation and compliance at both international and national levels. Moreover, they empowered non-state actors that became unexpectedly their enforcers. The Rio Principles have the capacity to project themselves into the future, as shown in the case of the proposal of a Global Pact for the Environment that would incorporate most of them in a future treaty. In Spain, the Rio Declaration and its Principles have been referential for the development of environmental law and through the European Union have acquired a stronger normative intensity. However our commitment as a country has depended more on our obligations towards the European Union than on an individual pledge towards the planet.