Legislative Prize — FRFG’s Policy Award for Intergenerationally Just Laws

 

Description of the Prize

At the end of every leg­isla­tive peri­od in Ger­many, the FRFG will award an unre­mu­ner­at­ed prize for a law or leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tive which either removes a present injus­tice that affects future gen­er­a­tions or pro­tects future gen­er­a­tions from future injus­tices. The law should be main­ly based on the prin­ci­ple of inter­gen­er­a­tional jus­tice. The act­ing recip­i­ents of the leg­isla­tive prize could be politi­cians who are either mem­bers of a gov­ern­ment (nation­al gov­ern­ments, EU-Com­mis­sion), mem­bers of a par­lia­ment (Mem­bers of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment or UK MPs), or incum­bents of a polit­i­cal office (sec­re­tary gen­er­al, board mem­ber, leader of  youth orga­ni­za­tion etc.).

The prize was award­ed in 2013 for the first time and then every four years after the fed­er­al elec­tion. With this award, the FRFG  empha­sizes the impor­tance of inter­gen­er­a­tional­ly just laws and fur­ther encour­ages the new­ly-elect­ed mem­bers of the Bun­destag to con­tin­ue this pos­i­tive devel­op­ment. Since 2017, the FRFG awards an addi­tion­al neg­a­tive prize for the most inter­gen­er­a­tional­ly unjust law.

 

Evaluation and selection process

Due to its dai­ly work, the FRFG has a good overview of laws and leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tives being inter­gen­er­a­tional just. In order to deter­mine if a law has a pos­i­tive influ­ence on inter­gen­er­a­tional jus­tice, a cat­a­log of cri­te­ria was elab­o­rat­ed (impact of the law, con­tri­bu­tion to inter­gen­er­a­tional jus­tice, inter­gen­er­a­tional jus­tice as jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, lev­el of inno­va­tion, par­tic­i­pa­tion of young peo­ple, tem­po­ral con­tin­u­ance, etc.). The selec­tion process is done in coop­er­a­tion with a jury. Regard­ing prize in 2014 and 2018, the jury con­sist­ed of experts in both the the­o­ry and the prac­tice, as well as mem­bers of the Sci­en­tif­ic Advi­so­ry Board of the FRFG and FRFG board members.

 

The FRFG Policy Award winners so far

For the 20th legislative period of the Bundestag (2017–2021):

Most inter­gen­er­a­tional­ly just: Judge­ment of the Ger­man Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court on the Cli­mate Pro­tec­tion Act (2021). More infor­ma­tion.
Most inter­gen­er­a­tional­ly unjust: Law on sta­bi­liz­ing the state pen­sion (2018). More infor­ma­tion.

For the 19th legislative period of the Bundestag (2013–2017):

Most inter­gen­er­a­tional­ly just: Eltern­geld Plus (2016). More infor­ma­tion.
Most inter­gen­er­a­tional­ly unjust: Deduc­tion-free old-age pen­sion at age 63 (2014). More infor­ma­tion.

For the 18th legislative period of the Bundestag (2009 — 2013):

Most inter­gen­er­a­tional­ly just: Nuclear phase-out (Atom­ausstiegs­ge­setz 2011). More infor­ma­tion.