On the Sustainability Principle of General International Law

This paper mainly explores the sustainability principle of general international law. By the detail analysis of the origin and development, key elements and legal status of the sustainability principle, it can be concluded that the concept of sustainability has made a steep career and now been regarded as a pivotal principle of policy-making by numerous international organizations and national governments; that the key elements of the principle appear to be inter-generational and intra-generational equity; that the principle at least has not yet achieved the status of a binding general international legal obligation and so we should take more specific international measures and make the principle be a requirement of international law.