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Eyes Wide Shut: On Risk, Rule of Law and Precaution
Author(s) -
FrancotTimmermans Lyana,
De Vries Ubaldus
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
ratio juris
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.344
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1467-9337
pISSN - 0952-1917
DOI - 10.1111/raju.12014
Subject(s) - certainty , legal certainty , harm , rule of law , precautionary principle , action (physics) , law , state (computer science) , law and economics , political science , economics , epistemology , computer science , philosophy , ecology , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , politics , biology
Abstract The rule of law offers legal certainty, laying down boundaries to the state's playing field. The precautionary approach stipulates that the absence of scientific certainty is no reason not to act to prevent harm. Here, uncertainty frames action. The precautionary approach potentially expands the state's playing field, and this expansion might well undermine the precepts of the rule of law. The certainty‐uncertainty axis exposes a tension between the rule of law and the precautionary approach in what Ulrich Beck has termed the world risk society in second modernity. It is this tension that is the focus of analysis in this article.