Direito em Movimento - Volume 19 - Número 1 - 1º semestre - 2021

84 Direito em Movimento, Rio de Janeiro, v. 19 - n. 1, p. 81-107, 1º sem. 2021 ARTIGOS vironmental protection, and how taking it seriously would contribute to better outcomes in achieving the SDGs. Ultimately, taking due account of human dignity has the power to inform, if not transform, discourse about and implementation of the SDGs. (MAY & DALY, 2020). Section 2 briefly summarizes how sustainability is reflected in law, primarily through the SDGs. Section 3 describes relevant legal expressions of human dignity. Section 4 then explores how human dignity informs understanding and implementation of sustainability, and Section 5 how advancing human dignity is the core purpose of the SDGs. Section 6 con- cludes the paper. 2 SUSTAINABILITY, THE SDGS, AND LAW Sustainability has a vast reach, embodying environmental, social and economic equity in a variety of contexts, including dignity (DALY &MAY, 2016, p. 218, 242), human rights (UN Doc. A/HRC/28/6, 2015, p.11-12), climate change, access to and availability of fresh water (MAY, 1998), shale gas development (DERNBACH &MAY), corporate practices, and higher education, among others. Sustainability is also a central feature in international and domestic relations (MAY & KELLY, 2012, p.13-24). It has long served as a general principle of international environmental law, including as an interpretive principle in international accords (PANJABI, 1997) and by international tribunals resolving environmental disputes. (HIGGINS, 1999). Domestically, sustainability has infiltrated constitutionalism around the globe. Presently, more than three-dozen countries incorporate sustaina- bility in their constitutions by advancing ‘sustainable development’, the in- terests of ‘future generations’, or some combination of these themes. (MAY & DALY, 2015) 6 Switzerland’s constitution, for instance, contains a section 6 See James R. May and Erin Daly, Global Environmental Constitutionalism (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Appendix E and associated text (denoting the role of sustainability in the development of international and natio- nal law, and analyzing constitutional provisions that embed sustainability from around the world); James R. May, ‘The North American Symposium on the Judiciary and Environmental Law: Constituting Fundamental Environ- mental Rights Worldwide’, 23 Pace Environmental Law Review (2006) 113-182, Appendix B (listing countries that