Effective multilateralism for an intergenerational covenant: Via universal rights or national interests?

Abstract

For more than three decades, scholars and global policy making circles have been discussing intra- and intergenerational global solidarity, and the need for an institution to ensure a voice for future generations in contemporary global policy making. With the announced 2024 Summit for Future Generations expected to adopt a Pact for Future Generations and create the position of a UN Envoy for Future Generations, these efforts seem finally close to fruition. This article discusses these recent evolutions in a theoretical international legal perspective, noting that an international constitutionalist perspective permeating the Our Common Future (1987) but especially the Intergenerational Solidarity and the Needs of Future Generations (2013) report of the Secretary General seems to have been replaced with a more nuanced approach, with an implicit positivist underpinning, in Our Common Agenda (2021). After explaining why positivism works better then constitutionalism in the intergenerational project, the article proposes that under the positivist paradigm, the announced 2024 Pact does not have to be the end of the road in operationalising intergenerational justice. National constitutional and institutional advancements may in the end lead to an intergenerational covenant, a concept also sketched out in this article.