Compendium of Land Use Laws for Sustainable Development

This book, first published in 2006, collects land use laws from countries on each continent that attempt to achieve sustainable development. Due to the startling evidence of global deterioriation and the long-term trends in land use, the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development was signed in 2002. In the laws collected in this volume, the reader can witness the evolution of national legal systems as they respond to the challenge of sustainable development. This volume illuminates the great flexibility and power of the law as a vehicle for change. Laws contained in this compendium are mechanisms competent to address society's problems; they provide strategies that are appropriate to the culture and place of their origin. This book provides evidence that laws and law reform are being used to create strategies that address a worldwide priority: the clear need to effectively use and preserve the land and its natural resources.

John Nolon received his JD degree from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was a member of the Barristers' Academic Honor Society. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Nebraska, where he was President of the Senior Honor Society. He has served as a consultant to President Carter's Council on Development Choices for the 1980s, President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development, New York Governor George Pataki's Transition Team, and the statewide Quality Communities Advisory Board directed by Lieutenant Governor Mary Donohue. Professor Nolon has been appointed Visiting Professor of Environmental Law at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and named the Director of the Joint Center of Land Use Studies formed by Yale and Pace Law School. He served on the Editorial Advisory Board of the National Housing and Development Reporter and is a member of the Editorial Board of The Land Use and Environmental Law Review, published by Thompson-West. He has worked extensively on sustainable development in South America as a Fulbright scholar.