Tulevien sukupolvien oikeudet ja sosiaaliturvajärjestelmän taloudellinen kestävyys
Avainsanat:
tulevien sukupolvien oikeudet, sosiaaliset perus- ja ihmisoikeudet, taloudellinen kestävyys, sosiaaliturva, sukupolvien välinen oikeudenmukaisuus, sosiaalinen kestävyysAbstrakti
The rights of future generations and the economic sustainability of social security systems
In recent years, the rights of future generations, and, more broadly, intergenerational justice, have increasingly become the subject of legal debate and research. This has been influenced above all by the emergence of so-called climate change litigation. So far, however, the rights of future generations have not been sufficiently discussed within other branches of law. The aim of this article is to answer the question of how the rights of not-yet-born future generations could – and should – be taken into account in today's social basic and human rights doctrine. It is argued, first, that securing the rights of future generations is not about defining the scope and level of future social security benefits, but, rather, ensuring that by avoiding excessive public debt future generations have the freedom and opportunity to define them themselves. Second, it is argued that even though it is difficult to evaluate the excessiveness of public debt and its impact on the “freedom rights” of future generations, different macroeconomic imbalance criteria serve as a good starting point. Finally, the anchoring of the justification of economic sustainability additionally to the rights of future generations lends it more normative force than mere macroeconomic arguments.
