Sustainable Development as the Common Good of International Community in Cross-Sectoral Dispute Settlement

Cross-sectoral conflicts, such as environment-trade disputes, are generally multi-dimensional and interwoven. Thus, a single dispute, with the same facts and same disputing parties, can undergo parallel proceedings before competent courts and tribunals under diverse technical regimes and end up contrasting judgments. Given that under general international law there is no legal principle to determine which international body has the main or exclusive jurisdiction in parallel proceedings, cross-sectoral dispute settlement can be challenging for international law system. In the researcher’s viewpoint, regulating and modifying the jurisdiction of dispute resolution courts and tribunals against one another, via sustainable development as the Common Good of international community, can be a solution to this challenge. In this regard, the present article, in a descriptive-analytical research, intends to elaborate on the capability of sustainable development in the accomplishment of this issue.