The role of African regional courts in shaping sustainable development: Balancing competing pillars and contributing to global jurisprudence

Abstract The central challenge of implementing the concept of sustainable development is that the term can be understood in many different ways. Sustainable development is interpreted to mean so many things to many different persons. Specifically, when interpreted from notions of people's, organisations', or states' needs and desired conditions, the concept attracts many (mis)interpretations. This study considers how African Regional Community Courts have incorporated the concept of sustainable development in environmental litigation decisions. The article explores international African jurisprudence to assess the role of international judicial bodies in sustainability and how they balance the social and economic development pillars of sustainable development against the environmental protection pillar. The study observes, from a range of judgements, that although sustainable development has yet to be extensively applied, African Courts have been innovative in incorporating sustainable development in their decisions and defining the environmental obligations of member states as stipulated under various international instruments.