Future Generations: Rights and Duties in Laudato si’

Abstract

The paper approaches the legal theoretical problems related to the concepts of future generations, their rights and obligations, on the basis of chapter 4 of the encyclical Laudato si’ (V. 159–162). It is argued that the atemporal use of the concept in LS allows the problem of the non-existence of future generations to be circumvented, but does not imply that persons who do not exist in the present could have rights. Thus, to establish an obligation to protect creation one should either accept the autonomy of obligations (i.e. their independence from rights), or seek to identify other bearers of the respective rights. It is in line with the approach reflected in the LS to speak of present people’s rights related to the future (their own posterity). Raising the awareness of such rights and the corresponding duties is a task in which democratic institutions as well as religious communities can play an important role.