Implementing sustainable development into one integrated domestic environmental legislative act. A law comparison between two frontrunners: New Zealand and The Netherlands

Whereas in most countries environmental law is commonly highly fragmented into an enormous amount of sectoral legislative acts, New Zealand and The Netherlands uniquely intend to have just one domestic environmental legislative act putting all fragmented sectoral laws and decrees in only one act of parliament. Both are supposed to achieve sustainable development by a novel integrated approach. However, there are differences as the New Zealand model puts all environmental norms in a subordinate position under one supreme principle of sustainable development, which is obviously not the case in the Dutch act. This article discusses both legislative acts and analyses which system would better serve sustainable multi-functional land use.