The Precautionary Principle: Its Use Within Hard and Soft Law

Standing and the Precautionary Principle

Implementing the precautionary principle.

The precautionary principle can be found in international treaties that protect human health and the environment from a variety of pollutants and perturbations. One of the earliest forms of the precautionary principle was used in the 1980s in Europe to protect the North Sea. In 1992, the Rio Declaration specifically included the precautionary principle in calling on nations to protect the envir...

Expanding the precautionary principle.

What Price Safety? The Precautionary Principle and its Policy Implications

The European Commission is actively promoting the precautionary principle as a “key tenet” of Community policy as well as a general principle of international law. This paper explains why this promotional effort is likely to fail or to produce unanticipated and undesirable consequences. The principle has a legitimate but limited role to play in risk management, for example whenever there is an ...

Nanomaterials and the Precautionary Principle

Nanomaterials and the Precautionary Principle doi:10.1289/ehp.1103687 Kessler (2011) provided a valuable update on the current state of research and regulatory pol­ icy concerning nano materials. However, the article could give the mis leading impression that the precautionary principle constitutes a straightforward guideline for improving public policy in this area. Instead, the precautionary ...