Law, Sacrifice and Survival

This thought-provoking book bridges the fields of legal theory and intergenerational justice. It demonstrates how legality ‘humanises’ intergenerational responsibilities by placing reasonable limits on our sacrifices for future generations.Stephen Riley explores novel readings of key theories and central texts in the philosophy of law and the philosophy of future generations. He argues that generational sacrifice, climate change, and legal institutions together produce a range of critical questions about how global problems are to be conceptualised and solved. The book emphasises that law is both an instrument and an ideal that must survive into the future in order to govern our collective agency in a principled way. Positing plausible, complex futures Riley makes a compelling case for law as the necessary mechanism for grounding intergenerational justice in human motivations, interests, and horizons.Law, Sacrifice and Survival is a vital read for scholars and students studying legal theory and philosophy, intergenerational justice, value theory and rights theory. It is also a valuable resource for educators in these fields.