Mediterranean sustainable development in international law  <B>Mediterranean sustainable development in international law</B><P>S. Marchisio</B><I><P> Institute of Legal Studies on the International Community, National Research Council, Rome, Italy</I><P> Abstract<P> The output of the 1992 Conference (UNCED) has underlined new trends in the evolution of international environmental law at the regional and global level. Some principles of international law on sustainable development have emerged and, among them, the principle of common but differentiated responsibility of States, contained in Principle 7 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. This principle overturns Principle 24 of the Stockholm Declaration: States shall cooperate in conserving, protecting, and restoring the environment not on an equal footing but taking in due account the different levels of development, and the different (past, present, and future) contributions to the global degradation of the Earth ecosystem. Developed countries have, in this respect, the main responsibility in view of the pressure their societies place on the environment and of the technologies and financial resources they command. This principle has two main consequences from the legal point of view: it allows a double regime of States rights and obligations in international conventions devoted to sustainable development and it requires from developed countries the maximum effort in financing the related activities. The emerging principles of international law on sustainable development have been partially endorsed by the instruments adopted at the Barcelona Conference of June 1995. The Resolution on Environment and Sustainable Development contains only general commitments, while the third part of MAP Phase II, concerning the institutional and financial arrangements, is rather inconsistent with the Rio outcome. The legal instruments, mainly the amended Barcelona Convention and the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean, present few novelties from the sustainable development point of view. In conclusion, the author believes that the Region must make a more determined contribution to this new objective of the international community in the next decade, in order to face the challenge posed by the sustainable development of our common mediterranean heritage.<P>