Rights and Future Persons
The Promise of Arguments from Present People’s Identity
Copyright (c) 2023 Könczöl Miklós
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
This paper examines the ways the two fundamental problems regarding the rights of future persons/generations (the non-existence problem and the non-identity problem) are usually tackled in scholarship. It is argued that while rights cannot be properly attributed to future people, rights in respect to future generations can be based on present persons’ identity.
Keywords:
How to Cite
References
Beyleveld, D., Düwell, M. & Spahn, A. (2015). Why and How Should We Represent Future Generations in Policymaking? Jurisprudence, 6(3), 549–566. Online: https://doi.org/10.1080/20403313.2015.1065642
Burke, E. (1790). Reflections on the Revolution in France and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to That Event. 2nd ed. Dodsley.
Caney, S. (2018). Justice and Future Generations. Annual Review of Political Science, 21, 475–493. Online: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-052715-111749
De-Shalit, Avner (1995). Why Posterity Matters. Environmental Policies and Future Generations. Routledge.
Feinberg, J. (1974). The Rights of Animals and Unborn Generations. In W. Blackstone (Ed.), Philosophy and Environmental Crisis (pp. 43–68). The University of Georgia Press.
Golding, M. P. (1972). Obligations to Future Generations. The Monist, 56(1), 85–99. Online: https://doi.org/10.5840/monist197256118
Gosseries, A. (2004). Penser la justice entre générations: De l’affaire Perruche à la
réforme des retraites. Aubier.
Herstein, O. J. (2009). The Identity and (Legal) Rights of Future Generations. The George Washington Law Review, 77(5–6), 1173–1215. Online: https://www.gwlr.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/77-5-6-Herstein.pdf
Kavka, G. (1978). The Futurity Problem. In R. I. Sikora & B. Barry (Eds.), Obligations to Future Generations (pp. 186–203). Temple University Press.
Light, A. & de-Shalit, A. (Eds.) (2003). Moral and Political Reasoning in Environmental Practice. MIT Press.
O’Neill, J. (1993). Ecology, Policy and Politics. Human Well-Being and the Natural World. Routledge.
Parfit, D. (1984). Reasons and Persons. Repr. with corr. 1987. Oxford University Press.
Rainbolt, G. W. (2006). The Concept of Rights. Springer. Online: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3977-8
Rawls, J. (1971). A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press.
Tattay, Sz. (2016). Making Sense of a Nonsense: Representation of the ‘Rights’ of Future Generations. In M. Belov (Ed.), Global Governance and Its Effects on State and Law (pp. 195–210). Peter Lang.
Thompson, J. (2009). Identity and Obligation in a Transgenerational Polity. In A. Gosseries & L. H. Meyer (Eds.), Intergenerational Justice (pp. 25–49). Oxford University Press.
Tremmel, J. C. (2009). A Theory of Intergenerational Justice. Earthscan.
Research for this paper was supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (grant ID: NKFIH FK 138346, ‘Legal Argumentation in the 21st Century’).