Course Description

This course explores the ethical and legal relations that exist between earlier and later generations within a political society. Is a later generation bound to honor laws or constitutions enacted by earlier generations? Is it bound to make payment on public debts of earlier generations? Is it obliged to respect and protect patterns of wealth and power created by earlier generations? May present governments or individuals legitimately engage in policies that result in the extinction of species, the destruction of ecosystems, or the depletion of sustainable resources? One organizing theme of the course is a constitutional question: whether the present language of the United States Constitution requires recognition and protection of posterity’s interests and, if so, which interests? Another overarching theme will involve the search for appropriate philosophical, legal, and policy responses to the risks of global warming. The course is designed for students of political science, philosophy, planning and public policy, environmental studies, history, and economics, as well as law students and those contemplating future legal studies.

The course is divided into four parts. In Part I, we will survey some influential historical approaches to intergenerational justice, focusing especially on the Bible, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, and the framers of the United States Constitution. Part II serves as an introduction to some of the concerns that modern philosophers have raised in regards to intergenerational issues, focusing especially on contractarian and utilitarian approaches to the subject. Part III looks at a few of the many difficult policy issues that implicate intergenerational equity concerns, focusing especially on global warming, property rights and distribution, population policy, long term public debt, and the common governmental practice of time discounting in cost-benefit analyses. Part IV provides an introduction to attempts to integrate intergenerational philosophy into modern law, focusing especially on the public trust and planetary trust doctrines and recent attempts to protect future generations under the existing language of the United States Constitution.

Course Requirements

The complete formula for your course grade is as follows: quizzes (25% -- administered weekly via Blackboard); midterm exam (25%); a final exam (25%); and a term paper (25%).

Quizzes: Blackboard quizzes will be due by 9:45 P.M. Friday of the week for which they are assigned. Your cumulative scores on these quizzes will account for 25% of your course grade.

Term paper. The length requirement for the paper will be 8-10 pp (space and a half). The term paper will be due by the end of week 8. More detailed instructions will be provided during the first week of class. The term paper will account for 25% of your course grade.

Course Texts

Auerbach, Bruce, Unto the Thousandth Generation: Conceptualizing Intergenerational Justice (Peter Lang, New York, 1995).

Page, Edward, Climate Change, Justice, and Future Generations (Edward Elgar, 2006).

All other course readings, culled from a wide variety of books and journals, will be made available in electronic format on Blackboard.

There will be mandatory readings assigned for every class period. There will also be optional readings made available through Blackboard or as course reserves at Knight Library. The term paper is expected to reflect research into at least three of these optional readings or equivalent outside research.

The Instructor

Professor Davidson received his Juris Doctorate in 1992. He has clerked for the Oregon Court of Appeals and worked as a public interest attorney for six years before returning to academia. His studies are concentrated in the areas of constitutional law, intergenerational justice, environmental ethics, and the philosophy of property.

John lives in Eugene with his wife (Kate), three children (Noah, Danaan and Bridget), 2 cats (Twilight and Moonshine), and dog (Juno).

Syllabus

All Blackboard homework is due by the end of Friday on the week for which it is assigned. The homework can be accessed through the BB course assignments folder.

DATE

TOPIC

READINGS (see suggested optional readings in Blackboard)

Week One

Introduction

Overview of Issues

Heilbroner: What has posterity done for me?;

Auerbach: intro;

De Shalit: intro;

Jefferson/Madison: letters

Quiz 1 due Friday, 9:45 P.M.

PART I

Historical Views

Week Two

Pre-Revolutionary: Greek, Biblical, Locke

Auerbach -- chap 2

Leviticus 25

Locke – chap 5 of 2d Treatise

Wolf – Property, Lockean Provisos, and

Future Generations

Davidson – Stewardship Doctrine Part I

Quiz 2 due Friday, 9:45 P.M.

Week Three

Views of Founders

[everything on Blackboard]

Excerpts from Founding Documents

Davidson – Stewardship Doctrine Part 2

Sloan – “The Rights of the Living”

Paine -- “Hereditary Succession”

Paine – “Agrarian Justice” (excerpts)

Jefferson – on the right to cultivate the

Earth

Burke – Reflections on the Revolution . . .

Paine – Rights of Man

Quiz 3 due Friday, 9:45 P.M.

PART II

Modern Philosophy

Week Four

Rights, Wrongs, and Duties

Auerbach -- chaps 3 and 4;

Macklin – Can FGs Have Rts? (BB)

Feinberg – Animals and Unborn (BB)

Pletcher – Rights of Future Gens (BB)

Quiz 4 due Friday, 9:45 P.M.

Week Five

Contract theory.

Utilitarianism.

The contingency problem and person affecting principles

Rawls: selections;

Richards: Contract, IJ and Energy;

Parfit: The Identity Problem;

Ariansen: Beyond Parfit’s Paradox;

Auerbach: Chap 6;

Quiz 5 due Friday, 9:45 P.M.

PART III

Political / Policy Issues

Week Six

Midterm (Monday)

Discounting

Rawls: Time Preference (BB)

Parfit: Energy and Further Future (BB)

Quiz 6 due Friday, 9:45 P.M.

Week Seven

Population

Harming the Dead; Obligations to Past Generations; Liability for Past Generations

Auerbach: chap 5

Wolf: Population Policy (BB)

Auerbach: Chap 7

Horowitz, Allen and Chrisman: Slavery

Reparations in the Popular Press

(BB)

Quiz 7 due Friday, 9:45 P.M.

Part IV

Legal / Economic Approaches

Week Eight

The Perpetuation of Inequality: Property, Privilege, and Power Across Generations

Braybrooke: “Social Contract and Property

Rights Across Generations”

(BB)

Henry George: Progress and Poverty, pp

333-407 (BB)

Shachar and Hirschl: “Citizenship as

Inherited Property” (BB)

Quiz 8 due Friday, 9:45 P.M.

Week Nine

(no class on Monday)

Climate Change.

Trusts: Private, Public, Planetary

Page: Climate Change, Chapter 3

Page: Climate Change, Conclusion

Redgwell: chap. 2 (private and charitable

trusts) BB

Redgwell: chap. 3 (public trust) (BB)

Illinois Central (excerpts) (BB)

Quiz 9 due Friday, 9:45 P.M.

Week Ten

Further constitutional perspectives.

Mary Wood: “Atmospheric Trust

Litigation” (BB)

Davidson: “What’s in a Title?” (BB)

Schlickeisen: “Protecting Biodiversity for

Future Generations” (BB)

Davidson: “Tomorrow’s Standing Today”

(BB)

Quiz 10 due Friday, 9:45 P.M.

Finals Week

Final Exam 10:15 A.M., Friday June 13