The Application of the Precautionary Principle in Practice
Comparative Dimensions

A critical overview of the application of the precautionary principle.

Joakim Zander (Author)

9780521768535, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 August 2010

408 pages
23.4 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.77 kg

'Zander's proposal hits the nail on the head.' The Cambridge Law Journal

This overview of the role played by the precautionary principle in international trade law, European law and national law compares how precautionary considerations have been applied in the fields of pesticide regulation and the regulation of base stations for mobile telephones in Sweden, the UK and the US. A number of problems in the current application of the precautionary principle are identified and discussed. For example, it is shown that a firm reliance on a wide and open-ended precautionary principle may lead to problems with the consistency, foreseeability, effectiveness and efficiency of measures intended to reduce environmental or health risks. It is suggested that the precautionary principle indeed may be an important tool, but that in order to be acceptable it must be coupled with strong requirements on the performance of risk assessments, cost/benefit analyses and risk trade-off analyses.

1. Introduction
2. Risk and uncertainty: basic concepts and tools for the application of the precautionary principle
3. The precautionary principle in international law
4. The precautionary principle in EC law
5. The precautionary principle in Sweden
6. The precautionary principle in the United Kingdom
7. The precautionary principle in the United States
8. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Public international law [LBB], International law [LB], Comparative law [LAM]