Intergenerational Justice Check: scientific measurement to evaluate intergenerational justice within legislative proposals

The challenge of intergenerational justice and its consequences for policy-making has long been known (and unresolved), but - made more urgent by the discussion about the “timetable” for climate protection measures (and in Germany by the demand for intergenerational proportionality in the so-called climate protection decision of the Federal Constitutional Court) - it calls for the development of manageable solutions in the practice of policy-making. In addition, the topic of intergenerational justice not only includes considerations relating to future generations, but also - already today - issues relating to the balance between existing generations.

The present project develops a theoretical and methodological framework on the basis of which legislative proposals can be examined with regard to their potential (1) effects in general and (2) on different generational groups in particular. Qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical research are used, which are combined in an innovative new instrument and used for the well-founded examination of proposed legislation. The methodologically sophisticated project is characterized in particular by the development of new measures and their intuitive graphical interpretation for recipients, as well as by the analysis of thematic dispersion and forecasts.