The Role of Customary Law in Sustainable Development

Description

For many nations, a key challenge is how to achieve sustainable development without a return to centralized planning. Using case studies from Greenland, Hawaii and northern Norway, this 2006 book examines whether 'bottom-up' systems such as customary law can play a critical role in achieving viable systems for managing natural resources. Customary law consists of underlying social norms that may become the acknowledged law of the land. The key to determining whether a custom constitutes customary law is whether the public acts as if the observance of the custom is legally obligated. While the use of customary law does not always produce sustainability, the study of customary methods of resource management can produce valuable insights into methods of managing resources in a sustainable way.

Peter Orebech is Professor of Law at the University of Tromso, Norway. Fred Bosselman is Professor of Law Emeritus at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Jes Bjarup is Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Stockholm. David Callies is Professor of Law at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Martin Chanock is Professor of Law at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Hanne Petersen is Professor of Sociology of Law at the University of Copenhagen.

'The book is an insightful introduction to the topic, which will be of interest to academics and students in areas such as law, environmental studies, sociology and anthropology, as well as to development planners at the local, national and international level ... it fills a gap in the current literature regarding the difficult link between customary law and sustainable development which is all too often taken for granted.' Environmental Conservation