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The Precautionary Principle and its Policy Implications
Author(s) -
Majone Giandomenico
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5965.00345
Subject(s) - precautionary principle , law and economics , commission , protectionism , distributive property , foundation (evidence) , economics , political science , business , public economics , risk analysis (engineering) , law , international trade , ecology , mathematics , pure mathematics , biology
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 article 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 imminent danger of irreversible damage. As a general approach to risk regulation, however, it suffers from a number of shortcomings: it lacks a sound logical foundation; it may distort regulatory priorities; it can be misused to justify protectionist measures; it undermines international regulatory co‐operation; and it may have undesirable distributive consequences. What is perhaps an even greater cause for concern is that the principle, as interpreted by the Commission, tends to favour a double standard for what is permissible internationally and in intra‐Community relations.