Governance, Good Governance, Earth System Governance... and International Law

This article is about concepts, circumstances, the impact of technology upon life, the emergence of new problems which bring new challenges to our peoples and our planet in our pursuit of sustainable development. New challenges call for new solutions and different ways of using already existing resources, tools and mechanisms. So we revisit and compare bibliography through time; recall the work (and product of) of several ILA International Committees on the subject and especially its New Delhi Declaration of Principles of International Law as Relating to Sustainable Development; turn to new initiatives, namely, the Earth System Governance Project and Future Earth. And conclude on the urgency of bridging “hard” and “social” sciences in the quest for these solutions, given the holistic character of the problem, if we expect them to be democratic and sustainable – bearing in mind, always, that politics creates and law consolidates.