The concept of absolute private propertyby which an owner can do whatever he wishes with what belongs to himhas been attacked in many ways, but no challenge brings it into question with such strength as the awareness of continuing environmental degradation in virtual contempt of sustainable development. Throughout the twentieth century and into our own era, legal property rights have time and time again been successfully invoked by polluters and others interested in evading ecological imperatives. However, most jurists today would agree that the internationally acknowledged necessity for land use to be administered in ecologically sustainable ways is plainly a principle that should be harmonized across national boundaries. This remarkab
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