Legal framework for sustainable development and current global challenges

The subject of the article is the formation of the legal framework for sustainable development in the context of modern global challenges. The subject of the legal framework is the social relations of sustainable development, which are regulated by separate branches of law, but in the aggregate form a separate branch of law. The legal foundations of sustainable development, formed under the influence of international cooperation processes, are currently exposed to new threats-illegitimate economic restrictions that call into question the previously stated goals of sustainable development. The purpose of the article is to review the current state and prospects for the development of the legal framework in the context of both traditional threats and new challenges caused by the external restrictions since 2014, and to assess the prospects for sustainable development in Russia. The main research method is the study of international and Russian scientific research literature, analytical and review materials from open sources using induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis and the method of analogies. In preparing the article, historical, statistical, system-structural and causal research methods were also used. It has been proved that the first year of the functioning of the national economy under the newly introduced sanctions in 2022 showed both their negative impact and a certain adaptive potential of the economic system and companies. The article is focused on the prerequisites for the formation, essence and subject of sustainable development law, as well as on methods of legal regulation and examples of legal mechanisms for incorporating sustainable development factors into business practices. The article raises the question of the legitimacy of unilateral economic sanctions from the point of view of international law. The article also assesses the impact of sanctions on the activities of companies and their commitment to the principles of sustainable development. The conclusion is made that business community considers the mechanisms of legal regulation of sustainable development as anti-crisis measures and considers those mechanisms to be expedient and justified in the long term to pursue a policy of maintaining a commitment to sustainable development and finding ways to overcome sanctions pressure.