Intergenerational Justice: A Primer

Abstract

This chapter introduces the debate on justice across generations by connecting it with contemporary accounts of distributive justice. It explores the pattern, metric, and scope questions as they arise in the context of intergenerational distribution. The question of pattern is: how should we distribute whatever it is that justice is concerned with? The question of metric is: what is it that we should aim to distribute across, or preserve for, future generations? The question of scope is: over whom does justice apply? This chapter defends an egalitarian response to the pattern question, a pluralist response to the metric question, and an inclusive ‘chronopolitan’ response to the scope question. It also addresses the question of weak vs. strong sustainability and the problem of rights-ascription in the case of future people.

Keywords: Intergenerational Justice, Environmental Justice, Weak Sustainability, Chronopolitanism, Future Generations, Egalitarianism

JEL Classification: D63, D69, D64