Philanthropy and Intergenerational Justice: Laying the Foundations

Justification of research project

This exploratory research project investigates how principles of intergenerational justice should inform the regulation of philanthropic grantmaking in Canada. As economic and environmental crises increasingly jeopardize the wellbeing of future generations, the role of philanthropic institutions in addressing long-term needs becomes a matter of legal, political, and moral urgency. Drawing from both common law and Indigenous legal traditions, this project will map legal instruments and doctrines that impose obligations toward future generations and examine their relevance for philanthropy. The study will begin with a literature review on theories of intergenerational justice, followed by an analysis of relevant legal frameworks. The goal is to establish a theoretical and doctrinal foundation for understanding how philanthropic regulation might better reflect obligations to future beneficiaries. It will contribute to legal scholarship and inform ongoing Canadian policy debates around charitable regulation such as disbursement quotas and donor-advised funds through the lens of justice between generations.

Research question

How should principles of intergenerational justice influence the legal regulation of philanthropic grantmaking in Canada?

Research purpose

The project aims to lay the conceptual and legal groundwork for analyzing the role of intergenerational justice in regulating philanthropy. It seeks to synthesize existing philosophical and legal scholarship on intergenerational obligations; identify relevant doctrines in both common law and Indigenous legal traditions; and reflect on how these insights might guide policy reform. Ultimately, the project aspires to illuminate whether—and how—the law should require philanthropic entities to consider the rights, needs, and agency of future generations in their governance, grantmaking practices, and use of endowed funds.

Research approach

The PhiLab partnership research program seeks to analyze the role and function of philanthropic grantmaking in advancing social equity and environmental sustainability in Canada. This project begins to address a related question: to what extent, and in what ways, should principles of intergenerational justice influence the regulation of philanthropic grantmaking?

Whether and how principles of intergenerational justice should affect the regulation of philanthropy is an important issue with political, moral and legal implications. This preliminary project aims to lay some of the legal and philosophical groundwork for this inquiry. It is a stage-setting project with four primary aims:

1. To summarize, in a preliminary way, the leading literature and key contemporary debates on intergenerational justice;
2. To identify doctrines and instruments within the common law tradition that engage principles of intergenerational justice;
3. To identify doctrines and instruments within Indigenous legal orders that engage principles of intergenerational justice;
4. To begin considering how those doctrines and instruments, and the debates associated with them, might inform our consideration of whether and how principles of intergenerational justice should affect the regulation of philanthropy.