Sustainable Development as a Legal Principle: A Rhetorical Analysis

28 Pages Posted: 22 Dec 2008 Last revised: 17 May 2016

See all articles by Jaye Ellis

Jaye Ellis

McGill University - Faculty of Law

Date Written: December 22, 2008

Abstract

This paper explores the significance of sustainable development for international environmental law. Sustainable development is treated as a concept rather than a legal principle, whose capacity to influence the system of international environmental law and legal conclusions reached within this legal system can usefully be analysed from the standpoint of rhetorical theory. Sustainable development is treated as akin to a rhetorical commonplace. It has not yet received the status of received wisdom that commonplaces possess, and indeed one of its central functions is to disrupt and challenge received wisdom. Nevertheless, sustainable development can serve as a commonplace, in that it helps structure legal arguments and, more importantly, can be used to render them more persuasive by helping a speaker create an emotional connection with an audience, thus enhancing the appeal of the reasoned arguments presented in support of a given legal position.

Keywords: public international law, international environmental law, sustainable development, rhetoric

Suggested Citation

Ellis, Jaye, Sustainable Development as a Legal Principle: A Rhetorical Analysis (December 22, 2008). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1319360 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1319360

Jaye Ellis (Contact Author)

McGill University - Faculty of Law ( email )

3644 Peel Street
Montreal H3A 1W9, Quebec H3A 1W9
Canada
514 398 6625 (Phone)
514 398 3233 (Fax)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,127
Abstract Views
4,639
Rank
35,401
PlumX Metrics