Law Commons^™

The Planetary Trust: Conservation And Intergenerational Equity, Edith Brown Weiss

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article suggests a normative framework which, if adopted and internalized by our political, economic, and social institutions, might enable them to serve as vehicles for ensuring that future generations will inherit their just share of our global heritage. Its thesis is that the human species holds the natural and cultural resources of the planet in trust for all generations of the human species. The article focuses on our duty towards the human species, for it is on this fiduciary duty that law and political institutions can be brought most readily to bear. This planetary trust obligates each generation to …