How to Contextualize Legal Norms in Practices of Sustainable Development? Distinguishing Principles, Rules, and Procedural Norms

This chapter questions how different kinds of central regulation affect the ability of local actors to achieve legitimate and effective solutions through governance processes. Central regulation is needed to normatively guide and enable urban processes of sustainable area development while at the same time the success of this development depends on the commitment and governance of bottom-up configurations. Various forms of central regulation are distinguished. We focus in the first instance on the potential for successful contextualization in material norms (both at the level of principles and at the level of rules). Next, the procedural norms of justice are discussed.