The Human Right to a Green Future
Environmental Rights and Intergenerational Justice

This book presents an argument for environmental human rights as the basis of intergenerational environmental justice.

Richard P. Hiskes (Author)

9780521696142, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 December 2008

184 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1 cm, 0.34 kg

'This is a far-reaching book that presents a seminal interpretation of intergenerational justice and a renewed landscape for rights, justice and community. Hiskes' narrative is saturated with responses to salient figures in philosophy and political theory. I regret that [this] synopsis cannot capture the range and richness of his account.' Human Rights Review

This book presents an argument for environmental human rights as the basis of intergenerational environmental justice. It argues that the rights to clean air, water, and soil should be seen as the environmental human rights of both present and future generations. It presents several new conceptualizations central to the development of theories of both human rights and justice, including emergent human rights, reflexive reciprocity as the foundation of justice, and a communitarian foundation for human rights that both protects the rights of future generations and makes possible an international consensus on human rights, beginning with environmental human rights. In the process of making the case for environmental human rights, the book surveys and contributes to the entire fields of human rights theory and environmental justice.

1. Environmental human rights and intergenerational justice
2. Emergent human rights, identity, harms and duties
3. Reflexive reciprocity and intergenerational environmental justice
4. Cosmopolitan ethics, communal reciprocity, and global environmentalism
5. Toward a global consensus on environmental human rights
6. Human rights as inheritance: instituting intergenerational environmental justice
7. Conclusion: environmental justice and the emergent future of human rights.

Subject Areas: Social impact of environmental issues [RNT], Environmentalist, conservationist & Green organizations [RNB], International human rights law [LBBR], International environmental law [LBBP]