ABSTRACT
This chapter aims specifically at identifying the nature of the challenges to the very idea of "rights" of members of future generations, as well as the possibility of addressing such challenges. It examines four challenges to the possibility and meaningfulness of granting rights—including constitutional ones—to future generations. They are non-existence challenge, non-identity challenge, unactionable rights, and self-sanction challenge. The chapter shows that for a reason different from the non-existence challenge, generational overlap will be crucial even for interest-rights theorists. The non-existence challenge can be disposed of by defending the idea of future rights. The non-identity challenge is relevant to all cases in which adopting one policy or another will also affect the identity of those who will be born, affecting in turn the possibility of using concepts of harm and rights. The future class actions are perfectly compatible with the transitive solution proposed to the non-identity challenge.
