Judges and the rule of law. Creating the links: Environment, human rights and poverty

The role of the judiciary to achieve environmental conservation was recognised in the last decade by Agenda 21. Paragraph 8.26 states that “efforts to provide an effective legal framework for sustainable development should be oriented towards improving the legal-institutional capacities of countries to cope with national problems of governance and effective law-making, and law-applying in the field of environment and sustainable development.” Most recently, the Johannesburg Principles have emphasised that “the fragile state of the global environment requires the judiciary..