THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE—NEW OPPORTUNITIES OR NEW CONSTRAINTS FOR THE OIL EXPLORATION INDUSTRY?

1994 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
H.R. Harding ◽  
E.C. Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Community Values ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Complex Concept ◽  
Present Trend ◽  
Potential Benefits

'Corporations if they are to remain in business for the long term must operate within a context of community values'. Burnup (1993)The precautionary principle has in recent years become embodied in Australian environmental policy and the present trend for its inclusion in legislation is likely to continue. Recent cases illustrate its application to the assessment of specific projects. Given these cases the precautionary principle needs to be placed on the oil E&P industry's environmental management agenda. The principle is not a simple rule of 'zero risk', but rather is a complex concept concerned with scientific uncertainty and information integrity and may require enhanced public participation for its application. More importantly application of the precautionary principle is a process in which industry has an important role to play. It is argued that participation in this process offers significant potential benefits for industry.

Discretionary Power, Scientific Uncertainty and Right to Life in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learnt from the Administrative Tribunal of Guadeloupe and the French Council of State

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 698-708
Author(s):  
Alessandra DONATI
Keyword(s):  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
Screening Tests ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Council Of State ◽  
Administrative Tribunal

Administrative Tribunal of Guadeloupe 28 March 2020, case n° 2000295 (Judge for interim relief); French Council of State 4 April 2020, cases n° 439904, 439905 (Judge for interim relief)Based on the precautionary principle and to protect the right to life under Article L. 521-2 of the French Code of Administrative Justice, the Administrative Tribunal of Guadeloupe (Judge for interim relief) ordered the Regional Health Agency of Guadeloupe and the University Hospital Centre of Guadeloupe to procure 200,000 COVID-19 screening tests corresponding to half of the population of Guadeloupe and to buy the doses necessary for the treatment of the COVID-19 epidemic with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for 20,000 patients. On appeal, the French Council of State, by disregarding the application of the precautionary principle and with controversial reasoning concerning the relationship between discretionary power and scientific uncertainty, annulled the decision of the Administrative Tribunal of Guadeloupe.

scholarly journals The Precautionary Principle: Its Use Within Hard and Soft Law

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
René von Schomberg
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Management Measures

The precautionary principle in public decision making concerns situations where following an assessment of the available scientific information, there are reasonable grounds for concern for the possibility of adverse effects on the environment or human health, but scientific uncertainty persists. In such cases provisional risk management measures may be adopted, without having to wait until the reality and seriousness of those adverse effects become fully apparent. This is the definition of the precautionary principle as operationalized under EU law. The precautionary principle is a deliberative principle. Its application involves deliberation on a range of normative dimensions which need to be taken into account while making the principle operational in the public policy context. Under EU law, any risk management measures to be adopted while implementing the precautionary principle, have to be proportionate to ensure the chosen high level of protection in the European Community.This article will illustrate the established practice concerning the release of genetically modified organisms into the environment and how the principle is implemented under hard law. The article also provides an outlook on what this may imply for the relative new case of nanotechnology and the use of precautionary principle within the context of soft law (use of codes of conduct).

The optimisation approach of ALARA in nuclear practice: an early application of the Precautionary Principle. Scientific uncertainty versus legal uncertainty

2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 81-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Lierman ◽  
L. Veuchelen
Keyword(s):  
Health Effects ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Ionising Radiation ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Low Doses ◽  
Scientific Controversy ◽  
Early Application ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Legal Sanctions ◽  
Deterrence Effect

The late health effects of exposure to low doses of ionising radiation are subject to scientific controversy: one view finds threats of high cancer incidence exaggerated, while the other view thinks the effects are underestimated. Both views have good scientific arguments in favour of them. Since the nuclear field, both industry and medicine have had to deal with this controversy for many decades. One can argue that the optimisation approach to keep the effective doses as low as reasonably achievable, taking economic and social factors into account (ALARA), is a precautionary approach. However, because of these stochastic effects, no scientific proof can be provided. This paper explores how ALARA and the Precautionary Principle are influential in the legal field and in particular in tort law, because liability should be a strong incentive for safer behaviour. This so-called “deterrence effect” of liability seems to evaporate in today's technical and highly complex society, in particular when dealing with the late health effects of low doses of ionising radiation. Two main issues will be dealt with in the paper:How are the health risks attributable to “low doses” of radiation regulated in nuclear law and what lessons can be learned from the field of radiation protection?What does ALARA have to inform the discussion of the Precautionary Principle and vice-versa, in particular, as far as legal sanctions and liability are concerned?It will be shown that the Precautionary Principle has not yet been sufficiently implemented into nuclear law.

Precaution: A taxonomy

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Luis Luján ◽  
Oliver Todt
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Technology Policy ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Science And Technology Policy ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Direct Link ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Policy Debates

In this paper we propose a typology of three interpretations of the precautionary principle, each with its associated philosophical and policy implications. We found that these different interpretations of precaution are closely related to variations in the understanding of scientific uncertainty, as well as varying ways of assessing possible (but uncertain) impacts of scientific–technological development. There is a direct link to the question of what scientific knowledge is and what role it plays in regulation and decision-making. The proposed typology permits a conceptual systematization of the current controversies related to the precautionary principle, while facilitating understanding of some of the deeper roots of science and technology policy debates.

THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE AND THE BOOK OF PROVERBS: TOWARD AN ETHIC OF ECOLOGICAL PRUDENCE IN OCEAN MANAGEMENT

2003 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Power Bratton
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Weak Form ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Environmental Disaster ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Ocean Management ◽  
Do No Harm

AbstractRecent catastrophes in environmental management, such as population collapses in oceanic fisheries, have led environmental activists and scholars to invoke the precautionary principle (PP). In its strong form, PP demands that no human-initiated change in an ecosystem be permitted unless it is certain it will do no harm; while, in its weak form, PP holds that if an action might be environmentally harmful, regulators may, on best evidence, limit human activities to avoid damaging ecosystem perturbations. Implementing PP, however, presents epistemological, logical and practical difficulties. This paper compares the function of PP to that of the Biblical Wisdom literature in encouraging ecological prudence, and argues that PP should be replaced by a series of guiding concepts, dealing with the limitations of ecological knowledge and the flaws in human character most likely to result in environmental disaster. The environmental cases analysed are from oceanic fisheries management.

Precautionary Principle in the Court Settlement of Civil Environmental Cases

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Cecep Aminudin ◽  
Efa Laela Fakhriah ◽  
Ida Nurlinda ◽  
Isis Ikhwansyah
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Weak Version ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Environmental Decision Making ◽  
Legal Decision Making ◽  
Civil Courts

In recent years, the precautionary principle has begun to enter legal decision-making in Indonesian civil courts. This introduction is in line with environmental cases that often involve much scientific evidence. This article aims to describe theoretical elaboration and, to a certain extent, legal developments in the application of the precautionary principle in the settlement of civil environmental cases in Indonesia. The precautionary principle provides a framework for environmental decision-making in the event of scientific uncertainty. The theoretical elaboration shows a wide dimension of influence of the precautionary principle on the system of liability and proof. In comparison, the court cases also show the application of the precautionary principle in the liability system and proof despite still in its weak version.

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