Protecting the Future People’s Future: How to Operationalize Present People’s Unfulfilled Promises to Future Generations
European Journal of Risk Regulation (2023)
As societies become more concerned with their impact on future generations, the question of how to translate that concern into greater consideration in contemporary decision-making is coming to the fore. Despite growing societal acceptance of the ethics of obligations to the future – as reflected in record-high number of future-sensitive constitutions and international treaties – present generations’ promises to future generations remain unfulfilled. After providing a systematic account of the multiple efforts at aligning the actions of decision-makers with the interests of future generations, this paper argues that to achieve the inclusion of future generations’ interests in contemporary policymaking requires more than the codification and successive establishment of new and scattered institutions, mechanisms and procedures. It rather calls for a more holistic, future-oriented and proactive approach by all public authorities. These must increasingly be expected to create the conditions not only for policymakers to consider the temporal dimension of their decisions, but also for all stakeholders to hold present people accountable to future generations. And do so beyond the environment and climate space. This is the spirit animating the European Journal of Risk Regulation’s Special Issue devoted to long term risks and future generations: to nurture a more imaginative theorization and operationalization of the recognition of future generations’ interests in contemporary policymaking beyond today’s institutional and conceptual models.
Time & Date
16:00-17:30 Thursday 11 January 2024
Venue
Lecture Hall B, 4F, IAR (International Academic Research) Bldg,
Hongo Campus, The University of Tokyo
Language
English
Host
Science, Technology and Innovation Governance (STIG) Program
Registration
Please register from the link below.
https://forms.gle/HXkSvR8JCiA3azo76
Speaker
Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law, HEC Paris
Founder, The Good Lobby
Alberto Alemanno is the Jean Monnet Professor of law & policy at HEC Paris and Visiting Professor at Tokyo University School of Public Policy. Alberto’s research and public interest work have been centered on how law and policies may be used to improve people’s lives, through the adoption of power-shifting reforms countering social, health, economic, and political disparities of access within society. Due to his commitment to bridge the gap between academic research and policy action, he set up the nonprofit, The Good Lobby, a nonprofit committed to equalise access to power. Alberto regularly publishes in The Guardian, Le Monde, Bloomberg, and his work has been featured in The Economist, The Financial Time, Nature and Science. He’s the author of more than fifty scientific articles and several academic books such as the acclaimed ‘Nudge and the Law’. The World Economic Forum nominated him Young Global Leader in 2015, Friends of Europe included him among the 40under40 European Young Leaders, the Schwab Foundation awarded him as Social Innovator of the Year in 2022 and he was conferred the life-long title of Ashoka Fellow.
Contact:
Science, Technology, and Innovation Governance (STIG) Program
Graduate School of Public Policy, The University of Tokyo
STIG@pp.u-tokyo.ac.jp