"Introduction" [2006] ELECD 477; in Tremmel, Chet Joerg (ed), "Handbook of Intergenerational Justice" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Handbook of Intergenerational Justice

Editor(s): Tremmel, Chet Joerg

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845429003

Section Title: Introduction

Extract:

Introduction


Dear reader,
The concept of `intergenerational justice'1 may very well become an intel-
lectual leitmotif of the new century. It does not only deal with the future, it
might have a future career in philosophy and politics itself. In 1980, Ernest
Partridge wrote: `The lack of manifest philosophical interest in the topic is
further indicated by the fact that of the almost 700 000 doctoral disserta-
tions on file at University Microfilms in Ann Arbor, Michigan, only one has
in its title either the words "posterity", "future generations" or "unborn
generations" ' (1980, p. 10). A lot has changed since then. In the last few
years, the number of scientific magazines and articles referring to justice
between generations and to future ethics (in a broader sense) has soared: in
the 1980s in the USA,2 and in recent years maybe even more in Europe.
Justice between generations is still not as salient on the agenda as justice
between rich and poor (social justice) or between men and women (gender
justice). But the gap is narrowing. In Germany, for instance, four quality
newspapers cited the term `intergenerational justice' only 19 times in 2001,
but 129 times in 2003 with further buoyancy (Nullmeier 2004).3
Since the earliest days of the environmental movement, the rights and
interests of future generations have been invoked in argumentative discourse
(see Palmer 2001). These days, however, barely a budget debate passes in a
parliament anywhere in the world without the Minister of Finance justifying
his ...