Hope-bearing legislation? The well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015

Stokes, Elen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0206-5241 and Smyth, Caer ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5816-6180 2024. Hope-bearing legislation? The well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Transnational Environmental Law 13 (3) , pp. 569-587. 10.1017/S2047102524000219

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Abstract

The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 is a landmark piece of sustainable development legislation and marks a significant development in the emerging legal identity of Wales. Despite the Act’s significance and ambition, it has been criticized as merely ‘aspirational’ – as ‘non-law-bearing’ and unenforceable by legal means. The Act is not without difficulties. However, it also has notable legal and other qualities that are often not captured within the standard justiciability-enforceability frame of analysis. Our aim here is to broaden the context for examining the Act and other ‘aspirational’ legislation like it. To that end, we identify three sets of questions that help to bring out different ideas around the Act’s varied enforceability, its possible constitutional status, and its potential role as a bearer of hope.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Law
Subjects:	K Law > KD England and Wales
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	2047-1025
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	25 July 2024
Date of Acceptance:	30 April 2024
Last Modified:	15 Jan 2025 14:54
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/170881

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