미래세대 보호와 헌법의 역할 : 기후위기 관련 헌법재판소 결정 분석을 중심으로

The Constitution, as the supreme law of the state, determines the legal order of the political community. In this capacity, it sets forth the guiding principles that serve as standards for the formation of political unity and the execution of national tasks; by sustaining decisions made at the level of the collective, it serves to mitigate internal conflicts and stabilize the burdens of decision-making within the community. Constitutional litigation concerning the climate crisis has affirmed that the constitutional right to a healthy environment is a right aimed at securing the quality of life for all citizens—including both present and future generations—and that it possesses the essential character of a fundamental right grounding the protection of life, bodily integrity, and liberty. This implies that the right to a healthy environment, as the right to live in a safe climatic environment for both current and future generations, means that the normative status of climate stability itself is recognized as a constitutionally protected fundamental interest, akin to life, bodily integrity, and liberty. In particular, given that the environment by its nature tends to give rise to long-term and wide-ranging challenges such as pollution and climate change, the constitutional right to a healthy environment must necessarily be interpreted as extending to the rights of future generations. Current national regulations, policies, and insufficient responses that adversely affect the climate crisis and related changes may threaten the community’s future survival. The recent proliferation of climate litigation within the international community clearly demonstrates the efforts made to protect, prevent the infringement of, and remedy the rights to life, the pursuit of happiness, and the right to a healthy environment of future generations, whose interests are increasingly at risk due to the present generation’s ad hoc measures. In light of the recent Constitutional Court decision, the state should strive to adequately manage greenhouse gas emissions and climate change through proper and effective minimum protective measures. Furthermore, it is to be expected that the Constitutional Court will, in future decisions, present and adjudicate upon more concrete legal grounds regarding the types and degrees of infringements and risks associated with the independently recognized constitutional right to a healthy environment, as well as the balancing of this right with other competing legal interests within the constitutional order.