From Obligation to Implementation: Examining the Capacities of Iranian Public Law for Realizing Environmental Protection in the Process of Economic Development

In recent decades, the environment has faced mounting threats due to the uncontrolled expansion of human activities and the intensification of economic and industrial pressures. In this context, the economic development process in developing countries, including Iran, has become a major source of environmental degradation due to its focus on quantitative growth and disregard for ecological capacities. Therefore, achieving a harmonious coexistence between economic development and environmental protection is not merely a political ideal but a fundamental necessity for the survival of ecological systems and governance structures. This paper, focusing on the two key components of obligation and implementation, seeks to explore, from a public law perspective, how the principles and commitments related to environmental protection can be transferred from the level of high-level legal and regulatory documents into binding and enforceable implementation within the Iranian governance structure. Accordingly, the subject of the study is based on an analysis of legislative, institutional, and policy capacities within the framework of public law—capacities that, despite the presence of progressive concepts at the theoretical level, are confronted in practice by structural weaknesses and implementation gaps. The conducted investigations, based on a descriptive–analytical method and relying on the study of library resources and legal documents, reveal that the transition from the current state to effective environmental governance requires a transformation in the public law approach to development, a redesign of the institutional structure, the institutionalization of accountability and public participation, and the enhancement of supervisory mechanisms. Without such reforms, the principles of sustainable development will remain at the level of slogans, and the link between legal obligation and actual implementation will not be established.