Abstract

The paper analyzes the principle of sustainable development by investigating its foundation in the intertemporal and spatial perspective of intergenerational and intragenerational solidarity. After having reconstructed the origins of the principle with a reference to the Brundtland Report and to the main international acts which contain a reference to sustainable development, the essay focuses on the introduction of the principle within the national legal system (with the recent constitutional reform and, even before that, with the Environmental Code) and in the regional statutes, also in order to evaluate how the concept of sustainability that the principle in question encompasses is increasingly emancipating from environmental law to become a parameter applicable to different sectors, even if not immediately connected with environmental protection