scholarly journals Taking a precautionary approach to nanotechnology

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dónal P. O’Mathúna
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Nanotubes ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Precautionary Approach ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Practical Guidelines ◽  
Rapid Pace

Nanotechnology is developing at a rapid pace. Concerns have been raised about the risks nanotechnology may carry for human health and the environment. The precautionary principle has developed within environmental ethics as a way to reduce the risk of harm with emerging technologies. It has been incorporated into a number of documents addressing nanotechnology risks, including the European Commission’s Code of Conduct for Responsible Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies Research. The central features of the precautionary principle are reviewed here. These include addressing situations of scientific uncertainty and serious or irreversible harm, developing a proportionate response, and having reasonable grounds for concern. These factors will be applied to carbon nanotubes to demonstrate how the precautionary principle can lead to practical guidelines during the development of nanotechnology.

Organismos Genèticamente Modificados y Riesgos Sanitarios y Medioambientales (Genetically Modified Organisms and Sanitary and Environmental Risks) by Justo Corti Varela. Madrid: Editorial Reus, 2010, 406 pp., € 41.50, Softcover.

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 624-625
Author(s):  
Marcos A. Orellana
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
The Precautionary Principle

Biotechnology is one of the great innovations of our time. While Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) present an advance in food safety and other fields, GMOs also pose risks to human health and biodiversity that are still subject to scientific uncertainty. Given the scientific uncertainty about the risks to people and the environment, the precautionary principle acquires a central role in the debate on these organisms. At the same time, the existence of an adequate regulatory framework that allows the management of those risks becomes critical.

scholarly journals THE APPLICATION OF THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE LAW OF THE SEA

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (29) ◽  
pp. 229-259
Author(s):  
Tiago Vinicius Zanella ◽  
Ricardo Pereira Cabral
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
International Tribunal ◽  
Irreversible Damage ◽  
Precautionary Approach ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
The Law

The precautionary principle, invoking the notions of risk, scientific uncertainty and irreversible damage, takes the solution of the environmental issues of the global risk society to the legal domain. Its application in international law has evolved significantly, especially with respect to the protection of the marine environment. This principle, which was much ignored in its practical application, is gradually being used in international environmental protection. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the jurisprudence of the ITLOS has contributed to the development and application of the precautionary principle for the protection of the marine environment and how the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea contributed to the development of this principle in international law. Thus, although we are still not able to safely say that the precautionary approach is included in international law as an unchallenged principle, it has been given great steps over the last few years in this direction. Particularly with the contributions of the international jurisprudence of the ITLOS, the precautionary approach is evolving and becoming an autonomous principle, with less uncertainty and subjectivity that caused so much apprehension for the States and doubt in the doctrine.

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).

A precautionary approach to genetic modification

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Lubbock ◽  
Andrew Coop
Keyword(s):  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Genetic Modification ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Precautionary Approach ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Deliberate Release

Presents a study that discussed the development of a new legal regime for the deliberate release of genetically modified organisms (GMO) into the European environment, as of January 2002. Information on the Precautionary Principle requirement of the existing regime; Assessment of the possible effect of the Precautionary Principle on decisions about GMO releases; Implications for the expectations of consumers regarding genetically modified products.

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.

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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