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This article examines the influence of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, known as the Rio Summit, on the design of subsequent international environmental agreements (IEAs). In particular, it investigates the extent to which the principles outlined in the Rio Declaration were integrated into IEAs concluded in the following years. We focus our investigation on three principles: the precautionary principle, common but differentiated responsibilities, and the polluter pays principle. Analyzing a collection of 2,211 IEAs and their 509 amendments, we find that the Rio Summit catalyzed the dissemination of these principles. However, our study also reveals that the Rio Conference was an inflection point, wherein weaker expressions of these principles became more prevalent. Stronger expressions, which were included in some IEAs prior to the Rio Summit, became relatively less common thereafter. We call this evolutionary process the 'survival of the weakest'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States have under the right to science an obligation to prevent or mitigate harm of scientific progress and its applications. This obligation is derived from the right to be protected against the harmful effects of scientific progress and its applications, a dimension of the right to science. However, preventing the harmful effects of scientific progress and its applications can sometimes conflict with other human rights or with scientific freedom, which is also part of the right to science. In such cases, limitations on one right might be required to protect another, whereby the different interests need to be properly balanced. While the duty to prevent harm is well established in international human rights law, it is yet obscure if the anticipation of potential harms to come is possible under the existing framework of international law. While not a legal concept, entry points for anticipation are already covered under the current international law and can be drawn together by a cross-fertilisation of the obligation to prevent, the precautionary principle and due diligence. The precautionary principle and due diligence can provide guidance on when and under what circumstances situations for anticipation are triggered and conducted. Both concepts involve a necessity and proportionality test, which is also inherent to limitations under international human rights law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent decades have seen a huge rise in human exposure to microwave radiation due to the widespread use of mobile and wireless services that enable smartphones and watches, tablets, laptops and digital devices in the home and workplace. The health and safety standards to protect humans from exposure to harmful levels of microwave radiation can be traced to the 1950s. However, research now demonstrates the existence of many adverse health effects, including cancers and neurological disorders, at levels of everyday use by children and adults. We argue that it is long past the time for governments to apply the Precautionary Principle to protect children and adults, especially pregnant women, and to ensure safer levels of exposure for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a framework to guide the EU in the choice of legal form for the regulation of eco-innovation. The framework distinguishes between uncertain and risky applications of eco-innovation. An uncertain eco-innovation, which poses an incalculable risk, is more difficult to regulate because the EU legislator needs to accumulate information in order to plug gaps in knowledge. In that context, directives are superior to regulations because they are conducive to experimentation and information accumulation. Risky eco-innovations, conversely, should be covered by regulations; otherwise, the cost of legal heterogeneity would outweigh the benefits of information accumulation. We also show that there are ways of conceptualising the choice between directives and regulations that are more productive than the sovereignty-versus-competition model that predominates in current legal thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We might create artificial systems which can suffer. Since AI suffering might potentially be astronomical, the moral stakes are huge. Thus, we need an approach which tells us what to do about the risk of AI suffering. I argue that such an approach should ideally satisfy four desiderata: beneficence, action-guidance, feasibility and consistency with our epistemic situation. Scientific approaches to AI suffering risk hold that we can improve our scientific understanding of AI, and AI suffering in particular, to decrease AI suffering risks. However, such approaches tend to conflict with either the desideratum of consistency with our epistemic situation or with feasibility. Thus, we also need an explicitly ethical approach to AI suffering risk. Such an approach tells us what to do in the light of profound scientific uncertainty about AI suffering. After discussing multiple views, I express support for a hybrid approach. This approach is partly based on the maximization of expected value and partly on a deliberative approach to decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation in agriculture has been essential in improving productivity of crops and forages to support a growing population, improving living standards while contributing toward maintaining environment integrity, human health, and wellbeing through provision of more nutritious, varied, and abundant food sources. A crucial part of that innovation has involved a range of techniques for both expanding and exploiting the genetic potential of plants. However, some techniques used for generating new variation for plant breeders to exploit are deemed higher risk than others despite end products of both processes at times being for all intents and purposes identical for the benefits they provide. As a result, public concerns often triggered by poor communication from innovators, resulting in mistrust and suspicion has, in turn, caused the development of a range of regulatory systems. The logic and motivations for modes of regulation used are reviewed and how the benefits from use of these technologies can be delivered more efficiently and effectively is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the EU sphere, the emergence in the political discourse of a potential innovation principle ('IP') has given rise to debates amongst scholars and stakeholders. The debate has mainly focused on the risk that an IP could pose to already-existing principles in EU law, such as the precautionary principle, and on the deemed deregulatory agenda of this industry-led initiative. As the IP is now making its way towards EU institutions and EU law, this article investigates the intuition that an IP could also encroach on democracy, namely the possibility for the sovereign people to make their own rules. Giving society a direction with respect to something as broad and ill-defined as 'innovation' indeed seems to fall within the core of politics. Based on a regulatory characterisation of the IP as a continuation of already-existing patterns, the article warns against possible further erosion of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk management decisions in public health require consideration of a number of complex, often conflicting factors. The aim of this review was to propose a set of 10 fundamental principles to guide risk decision-making. Although each of these principles is sound in its own right, the guidance provided by different principles might lead the decision-maker in different directions. For example, where the precautionary principle advocates for preemptive risk management action under situations of scientific uncertainty and potentially catastrophic consequences, the principle of risk-based decision-making encourages decision-makers to focus on established and modifiable risks, where a return on the investment in risk management is all but guaranteed in the near term. To evaluate the applicability of the 10 principles in practice, one needs to consider 10 diverse risk issues of broad concern and explore which of these principles are most appropriate in different contexts. The 10 principles presented here afford substantive insight into the process of risk management decision-making, although decision-makers will ultimately need to exercise judgment in reaching appropriate risk decisions, accounting for all of the scientific and extra-scientific factors relevant to the risk decision at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of environmental clearance in India is currently regulated by the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification 2006. In March 2020, the Government of India issued the Draft Environmental Impact Assessment Notification 2020, which sought to replace the 2006 Notification. The most contested provision of the Draft Notification is the procedure to deal with cases of violation. While the 2006 Notification lays down a strong regulatory procedure to deal with such cases, the Draft Notification weakens it. In this context, this Note presents two arguments. First, the Draft Notification has altered the procedure such that its deterrent effect, and potential to immediately prevent environmental harm, is diluted. Consequently, it normalizes violation and ex-post facto clearances, and weakens its risk avoidance and risk management potential. Second, the proposed procedure is counterintuitive to the precautionary principle. Accordingly, the authors iterate that the Draft Notification amplifies the threat to India's environmental conservation commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources is responsible for managing human activities in the Southern Ocean. The Convention's Commission meets annually to determine management decisions to deliver the Convention's objective of conservation of Antarctic marine living resources (including rational use). Members are required to base these decisions on the 'best available scientific advice', meaning the best scientific information available at the time. Applied correctly this approach is an effective way to implement the precautionary approach required by the Convention. This paper reviews the Commission's responses to the Scientific Committee's recommendations, to assess the extent to which it has used best available scientific information in its decision making. It concludes that since 1990, there has been a consistently high uptake of 'best available science' by the Commission, particularly for general fisheries regulation and specific finfish fisheries, and that progress is steady on the implementation of long-term krill management. However, there are inconsistencies in the approach to the application of 'best available science' for issues that extend outside explicit fisheries management. Without embracing its obligation to consistently use best available science across all management and conservation responsibilities, the Commission will face challenges in effectively delivering the Convention's objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potential future application of engineered gene drives (GDs), which bias their own inheritance and can spread genetic modifications in wild target populations, has sparked both enthusiasm and concern. Engineered GDs in insects could potentially be used to address long-standing challenges in control of disease vectors, agricultural pests and invasive species, or help to rescue endangered species, and thus provide important public benefits. However, there are concerns that the deliberate environmental release of GD modified insects may pose different or new harms to animal and human health and the wider environment, and raise novel challenges for risk assessment. Risk assessors, risk managers, developers, potential applicants and other stakeholders at many levels are currently discussing whether there is a need to develop new or additional risk assessment guidance for the environmental release of GD modified organisms, including insects. Developing new or additional guidance that is useful and practical is a challenge, especially at an international level, as risk assessors, risk managers and many other stakeholders have different, often contrasting, opinions and perspectives toward the environmental release of GD modified organisms, and on the adequacy of current risk assessment frameworks for such organisms. Here, we offer recommendations to overcome some of the challenges associated with the potential future development of new or additional risk assessment guidance for GD modified insects and provide considerations on areas where further risk assessment guidance may be required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the concepts of "research fishing" and "directed fishing" under the Ross Sea region Marine Protected Area (RSrMPA) with specific regard to MPAs as a conservation tool, drawing comparisons with related concepts contained in two other agreements, namely, the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) and the 2018 Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAOF Agreement). It first reviews the negotiation processes of the RSrMPA, focusing on debates between so called "fishing states" and "conservation states," as well as the political compromise that led to the establishment of the RSrMPA. Second, it takes a detailed look at the regulation of "research fishing" and "directed fishing," which may be conducted in the RSrMPA and the three zones into which it is divided. Third, it analyzes how "scientific research activities" and "exploratory fishing" are regulated in the CAOF Agreement. Thereafter, this article examines the role of the concept of whaling "for purposes of scientific research" under the ICRW. It concludes with an assessment of differences and similarities between the analyzed regulatory instruments, which identifies recommended lessons for the design of Conservation and Management Measures establishing MPAs that both reflect the precautionary approach and strike a balance between conservation and utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand and high market price for sea cucumber has led to the collapse of wild stocks for many traditional species in Asia and the Indo-Pacific. New species have therefore been introduced to the markets over recent decades, including Cucumaria frondosa. A fishery for C. frondosa emerged in the USA in the 1980s and quickly developed in Iceland, Canada and Russia. Commercial products include frozen and dry body wall (beche-de-mer), frozen muscle bands, dry aquapharyngeal bulb (flower), along with various pharmaceutical and nutraceutical extracts. This species is also a candidate for aquaculture due to its high marketability for food and bioactive products. Despite its naturally high abundance, C. frondosa is a temperate-polar slow-growing species with annual spawning; therefore, a precautionary approach must be taken to develop best practices for management of this resource. The present contribution reviews the biology, ecology, biochemical properties, harvesting and trade, and the potential aquaculture of C. frondosa. This comprehensive synthesis, including 10 theses, 197 scientific papers and 47 reports, aims to provide a framework for future research by highlighting areas of concern for academic studies, fishery management, and aquaculture of cold-water sea cucumber species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The brumby (or feral horse) is an icon of colonial settler Australian culture in the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. 2018 saw the introduction of the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Bill 2018 (NSW), known as the Brumbies Bill, which cast heritage protections over brumbies in Kosciuszko National Park (KNP). The Brumbies Bill prioritised feral horses over the protection of Alpine Australia, an area which contains a unique ecosystem only present on 0.3% of the Australian landmass. The Bill was highly controversial and directly undermined decades of research into feral horse damage by overturning the pre-existing KNP Horse Management Plan. In this paper we explain the change of policy, an undertaking especially important in the context of debates about the need for more biodiversity protection. We apply a critical legal geography lens, focused on the need to understand how law/s shape places, draw on ideas from ecological justice and introduce the principle of non-regression to this controversial policy reversal. We are especially interested in exposing the processes behind such environmental policy reversals and in unpacking competing perspectives regarding policy formation. We suggest abrupt policy changes are not prudent for a precautionary approach to environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese food policy has changed over the last two decades from a productivist focus to embracing a precautionary approach to food safety. What are the drivers of this change? And what are the implications for the Chinese political regime? While acknowledging the relevance of global dynamics, we claim that domestic dynamics have largely accounted for this change. A series of food scandals in the 2000s has caused concerns among Chinese consumers and ultimately lead to a contested governance of food safety in the nation that has challenged the legitimacy of the regime itself. The government has responded by introducing new precautionary measures, as theorists of responsive authoritarianism would predict. Contrary to such predictions, though, the Chinese government toughened provisions to repress violations. Due to these characteristics, we conclude that the Chinese approach to food safety that emerged after the food scandals can be synthesised as a form of precautionary authoritarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sesame allergy is a public health problem in many countries around the world. The purpose of this study is to determine the occurrence of sesame allergen in unlabelled or labelled free-sesame Middle Eastern foods with or without Precautionary Allergen Labelling (PAL) 'may contain' and estimate the risk incurred by the Canadian population allergic to sesame with a focus on products purchased in Middle Eastern grocery stores and bakeries in Montreal, Canada. A total of 571 samples were analysed to determine the level of sesame protein. Of the 571 samples analysed, 19% (109/571) contained sesame (results >LOQ) with concentrations of sesame proteins varying between 0.5 and 1,875 mg kg−1 and 35% (199/571) contained traces (a value between LOD and LOQ). Unpackaged products were found to present the highest proportion of sesame containing samples (36%). For packaged products, 16% (27/173) of samples with PAL and 3% (5/173) without PAL were found to contain sesame. A probabilistic approach was used to estimate the risk incurred by the Canadian consumers allergic to sesame. Our evaluation estimated that 33 to 308 allergic reactions may occur out of 10 000 individuals ingesting one type of bakery product contaminated at a level of 0.6–74 mg kg−1 sesame proteins. The incidence and level of sesame cross-contact reported in this study demonstrate that sesame allergic consumers could react if they ignore the precautionary allergen statements on product labels. Attention to sesame as a potential cross-contact agent and as a priority allergen calls for better management, given the growing interest in this ingredient to be included in food formulations. Enhanced risk management efforts must be coupled with targeted risk communication covering both producers and consumers as to the need to adopt and an approach for the application of precautionary allergen labelling based on risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates the approach by the South African Courts concerning the constitutionality of the declaration of national disaster and the Covid-19 regulations. It sets the tone by evaluating the approach in Kenya in contrast with the South Africa position. A look at the rising tensions between human rights protection and public law informs this exercise. While Kenya uses a precautionary approach to uphold the constitutionality of the Curfew order, South Africa seems to oscillate between the proportionality and the rationality test. A call for clarity in the Court's reasoning on rationality is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore how the politics of European regulation and risk governance for innovative agricultural biotechnologies, with the continuing emphasis on the precautionary principle, has problematised conventional norms of evidence-based risk-related decision-making. Based on a study we conducted that analysed how the EU regulatory system had operated in practice in the context of two of the company Syngenta's genetically modified (GM) crops (Bt11 and GA21), and through two stakeholder workshops, we highlight the tensions in the current regulatory system in Europe, the implications for the future regulation of new and emerging advanced agricultural biotechnologies in the EU, and suggest areas where there may be a need for further regulatory adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glyphosate, known by the trademark Roundup®, is the most popular herbicide today and is used for weed control on agricultural fields and city streets. The exposure of human beings to glyphosate, even when they do not manipulate this chemical, is very widespread. Several studies have shown that this compound is now present in common foods, water, and in the urine of a large part of the population. Results of several assessments point to glyphosate as a carcinogenic substance for human beings, but the chemical industry argues that this substance is innocuous and very useful, even indispensable, in crop protection. This paper considers the contradictory reports, uncertainty, public disquiet, and legal dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine recreational fishing (MRF) in Portugal is a traditional leisure activity with considerable importance for coastal populations. In the absence of available information from the national data collection framework, this article aims to review the existing information on MRF across the country. MRF was an open access fishery until recently, but with rising evidence of overexploitation of coastal resources, a precautionary approach was imposed top-down, without consulting recreational fishers. In Portugal, the MRF participation rate is comparable to the European average (2%). The most important fishing mode (according to the official issued licenses) is shore angling. Mainland Portugal marine recreational catches (0.8% of total commercial landings) are likely underestimated, while the estimate for the Azores (6% of total commercial landings) is probably closer to the national reality. The Portuguese MRF sector faces several challenges, including: (1) the need for a definition of a national data collection framework; (2) the inclusion of MRF harvest estimates in stock assessments for key captured species; (3) management approaches which also take into account the ecosystem approach to fisheries and any potential effects of climate change; (4) additional research on post-release mortalities for the most important MRF species; and (5) a stronger involvement of all stakeholders in the decision-making process of MRF. The latter would be critical to improve the adequacy of regulations to the MRF reality, mitigate conflicts with other sectors (e.g., commercial fishing), and potentially increase fishers compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines in general terms the impact of the precautionary principle on COVID-19 legislation and management. In academic discussion the precautionary principle is usually referred to in the context of environmental policy. The principle can also be found, however, in health protection, which suggests its transfer to the pandemic situation. Contrary to the concern that the principle could serve as a blanket justification for extreme and arbitrary interventions in civil liberties, the paper demonstrates that, notwithstanding conflicts with the rule-of-law obligation to evidence-based legislation, the precautionary principle does not supplant the principle of proportionality. Thus, it sets limits to risk-related legislation even though it allows restrictions in the absence of scientific consensus. Reflecting on the scientific debate about the precautionary principle can help to maintain (or at least restore) rationality and prudent risk tradeoffs even in times of emergency legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart water management (SWM) brings technological sophistication to water governance by providing monitoring, operational and communications capacities through real-time information. SWM's quantification appeals to metric-driven governance but, we argue, also perpetuates a technocratic and instrumental-rationalist mindset. The peril of this mindset is that it sees technology as a solution for sustainability problems caused by deep-seated structural and behavioural faults. This essay reflects on this dynamic by siting the SWM concept within discussions about technocracy, moral hazard and power dynamics. It suggests that SWM's rhetorical positioning undermines its own goals while naively seeking universal applicability, resolvable by embracing the precautionary principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My vision for good future impact assessment (IA) involves 1. IAs testing the impacts of the plan/project against environmental standards; 2. IAs applying the precautionary principle to impacts that are already globally problematic, with the assumption that those impacts are significant until the IA can show that they are not; 3. Making IA recommendations legally binding; and 4. Better scoping to allow IA to focus on only key impacts. These changes would turn IA from a (baleen) whale – imposing but toothless – into a sleek and effective shark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and groundwater contamination debate started as soon as the commercial production of shale gas began in the United States. Since then there have been contrasting studies that have analysed the risk of groundwater contamination in carrying out fracking activities. In India, fracking is at its initial stage and therefore considering the groundwater contamination probabilities at the proposed sites, the Indian legislators/regulators may invoke the precautionary principle. This paper analyses the contrasting research over the probability of groundwater contamination, especially through methane migration, at fracking sites. Further, this paper examines the need for applying the precautionary principle, considering the scientific uncertainty prevailing over methane migration and groundwater contamination, to the Indian legal regime applicable to fracking activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union and the United States have significantly different approaches when addressing climate change. It is reasonable to think that the actions of the EU and the US, as powerful entities in global politics, influence the contours and effectiveness of the international climate change regime. The EU has for a long time strived to play the strongest role possible in international climate negotiations and to maximise its climate change targets, which is reflected through its climate policies and legal implementation of the international climate change regime. The situation in the US is more polarised, with the Republican Party almost uniformly denying the existence of climate change and any human impact on rising global temperatures. Instead of taking scientific reports on impacts, risks and adaptation to climate change seriously, the Trump administration is focused on increasing US production of oil, natural gas and coal. Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing to combat climate change, build a clean energy economy and secure environmental justice. This article explores and explains the legal differences in the EU and the US responses to climate change and climate change targets, and considers the possible contributing factors. The assessment takes account of policies at the highest governing level, thus not taking account of what is happening among some US states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it possible to mount a compelling ethical argument for METI? As we have argued elsewhere, conventional ethical theories are highly anthropocentric, making them difficult to apply to unknown alien intelligences, whose characteristics, needs, and concerns may differ radically from our own. In the absence of ethically relevant information about ETIs we contend that it isn't possible to provide a strong conventional ethical argument for METI. Drawing upon the ancient, less widely known, ethical-political tradition of cosmopolitanism, however, we show how proponents of METI could provide an ethical argument for trying to contact ETIs under the right procedural conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a strong critique of the particular interpretation of the precautionary principle by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) under the appropriate assessment procedure of the Habitats Directive. The CJEU favours a 'criminal-like' standard of proof whereby project developers must provide the necessary evidence to inform national licensing authorities beyond all reasonable scientific doubt of the absence of threats to the integrity of nearby marine Natura 2000 sites. This strict application of the precautionary principle is no longer suitable with respect to nascent offshore renewable energy technologies. It erects a standard of proof that cannot be realistically met by project developers in the marine environment and stands as an obstacle in the way of technologies that are needed to tackle the greatest environmental threat of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanotechnology has the potential to bring about revolutionary changes in manufacturing products, including sunscreens. However, a knowledge gap between benefits and detriments of engineered nano-materials used in sunscreens exists, which gives rise to safety concerns. This article is concerned with the protection of consumers without impairing the embellishment of this promising technology. It is widely argued that the harm associated with nano-sunscreens may only occur under certain conditions related mainly to users skin vulnerability, which can be avoided by informed and careful use of such a product. We thus recognize the need for fostering the growth of nanotech simultaneously with preventing potential harm. We revisit the Australian sunscreens regulatory policies, which embrace a "wait and see" approach, through the lens of regulatory policies in the European Union (EU) that are influenced by a "precautionary principle." We highlight the importance of informing consumers about the sunscreen they are using and recommend that product labels should disclose the presence of nano-ingredients in line with the EU disclosure requirements. This will allow users to carefully apply the product in order to avoid any potential harm and to protect manufacturers from possible costly litigation in future. This can be achieved through a combined collaborative effort of regulators, supply chain entities, and end users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Section 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa provides that everyone has the right to have the environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations. To give effect to this right, the South African Parliament has promulgated section 49 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 and section 24(2A) of the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998, which collectively bestow upon the Minister of Mineral Resources and the Minister of Environmental Affairs respectively, the powers to declare a prohibition or restriction on prospecting or mining rights. Consequently, this article assesses whether these two provisions comply with the constitutional mandate to protect the environment. In essence, this paper contends that these twin provisions countenance further destruction of the environment in contravention of the constitutional mandate to protect the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the early 2000s, delegates to the U.N.-sponsored Convention on Biological Diversity negotiated a "biosafety protocol" to regulate the international movement of organisms genetically modified with the newest, most precise techniques, which they dubbed "living modified organisms," or LMOs. The protocol is based on the bogus "precautionary principle," which dictates that every new product or technology - including, in this case, an improvement over less-precise technologies - must be proven completely safe before it can be used. Rather than creating a uniform, predictable, and scientifically sound framework for effectively managing legitimate risks, the U.N.'s biosafety protocol established an amorphous global regulatory process that encourages overly risk-averse, incompetent, or corrupt regulators to hide behind the precautionary principle in delaying or denying approvals. It has become a self-defeating impediment to the development of new and better products. To "celebrate" the 15th anniversary of the Protocol, the UN Environment Program is seeking articles about various aspects of it, illustrating yet again the poor judgement and audacity of United Nations' programs and officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the possibility that the precautionary principle may be scrapped from the European Union's (EU) free trade agreements. Topics covered included the legal and regulatory approaches to environmental policymaking which helped the formation of the precautionary principle as a guideline in environmental decision making and the reasons the Innovation Principle is much favored in the U.S. and why it is under intense scrutiny in the EU.

The article discusses the role of evidence in the regulation of technology. Topics covered include an analysis of the European legislation on synthetic chemicals, particularly the legislation on industrial chemicals and how a key component of that legislation, the risk assessment of chemicals is carried out and an examination of the philosophical underpinnings of the assumption that a new technology should be allowed unless it can be shown that it causes harm.

The article explores the future role of the precautionary principle by investigating how legal and ethical considerations intertwine. Topics covered include an examination of how financial markets are adjusting to the emerging economic and social realities of climate change, the challenges to the precautionary principle and the pathways through which businesses could face the impacts of climate change as outlined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The article explores the precautionary principle to reposition the international climate regime specifically for the singular mission of urgently preventing catastrophic climate change. Topics covered include the three domains of debate and action as potential places for a scientifically congruent reframing with the objective of fast-tracking deep emission cuts and the precautionary principle in international climate law and in customary international law.

Allee effects occur when survival or reproductive success declines with decreasing population size or density. Species most severely impacted by Allee effects may be the very species for which these effects will be hardest to detect and overcome. This impedes effective conservation through a lack of evidence to drive management actions. We review the literature to identify (1) component Allee effects (components of fitness) which could lead to a demographic Allee effect (effect of all components on the population growth rate) in bird populations; and (2) traits that make species susceptible to component Allee effects. Concurrently, we assess the potential for undetected Allee effects to negatively influence the population growth rate of 14 critically endangered Australian bird species or subspecies. Whilst some (e.g. Helmeted Honeyeater) are unlikely to suffer from a demographic Allee effect, several (e.g. Great Knot, Orange-bellied Parrot) are susceptible to a number of component Allee effects and, hence, a demographic Allee effect. However, traits of the Regent Honeyeater suggests this species’ decline in particular is accelerated by an undetected demographic Allee effect. For this species and others, an inability to detect Allee effects need not preclude efforts to account for their potential presence through precautionary conservation management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tolerance for blood transfusion risks is very low, as evidenced by the implementation of expensive blood tests and the rejection of gay men as blood donors. Is this low risk tolerance supported by the precautionary principle, as defenders of such policies claim? We discuss three constraints on applying (any version of) the precautionary principle and show that respecting these implies tolerating certain risks.Consistencymeans that the precautionary principle cannot prescribe precautions that it must simultaneously forbid taking, considering the harms they might cause.Avoiding counterproductivityrequires rejecting precautions that cause more harm than they prevent.Proportionalityforbids taking precautions that are more harmful than adequate alternatives. When applying these constraints, we argue, attention should not be restricted to harms that are human caused or that affect human health or the environment. Tolerating transfusion risks can be justified if available precautions have serious side effects, such as high social or economic costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological citizens are increasingly encouraged to adopt ‘precautionary consumption’ – a set of practices aimed at shielding them from the potential health harms of exposures to everyday toxics. The utility and the effects of precautionary consumption in relation to common chemical exposures are investigated. Precautionary consumption is not only of questionable utility, but is fundamentally misguided as an approach for inspiring antitoxics organizing. The failure of this approach is in part due to its assumption of a naturally bounded, autonomous individual who is able to maintain an impermeable boundary between herself and the environment. Drawing on the work of material feminist theorists, it is argued that Gabrielson and Parady’s notion ofcorporeal citizenship, an approach that places bodies into a complex web of material, ecological relations entangled with the social, offers several strategic advantages for framing resistance strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the Paris Agreement constitute an adequate precautionary response to the current (un)certainties in keeping the global average temperature rise to safe levels? This article begins by briefly summarizing the scientific uncertainties and political challenges that the Paris Agreement is likely to face in meeting its goal. It then considers the adequacy of the Agreement’s response to these uncertainties by assessing its key provisions related to dealing with climate impacts – adaptation, loss and damage and finance. It finds that these provision are weak in the face of very possible future realities. The interests of the poorest countries, communities and individuals and the most vulnerable, in particular, are inadequately served by the Paris Agreement. Policy relevance The article points out that the Paris Agreement does not satisfy the provisions of UNFCCC Article 3.3, which calls for a precautionary approach to addressing the adverse effects of climate change. Further action is needed to strengthen the provisions on mitigation and dealing with the impacts of climate change in the face of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How does the World Trade Organization (WTO) shape contests among civil society organizations, transnational firms, and states over domestic regulations that protect human health, such as food safety standards? The WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS Agreement) aims to limit the use of non-tariff barriers like regulatory standards as protectionist measures. Yet, few attempts have been made to explore how these rules shape national policy-making processes, and particularly the ability of civil society organizations to ratchet up protective regulations. Through a study of standard-setting for pesticide residues in soft drinks in India, I argue that WTO rules are at once legal obligations backed by the coercive threat of economic sanctionsanddiscursive standards for what constitutes ‘appropriate regulatory practice.’ As discursive standards, the rules shape the rationalities and strategies of diverse actors in domestic regulatory contests. These standards of appropriate regulatory practice are used instrumentally by transnational firms to undermine the influence of civil society in policy-making but can also offer opportunities for civil society organizations to contest and even enlarge the boundaries of appropriate regulatory practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a critical short review of an ongoing conflict between science and law in recent Italian litigation with the aim of illustrating how the so-called “flawed science” can negatively impact litigation. An effective story is used to introduce the primary elements that can characterize “flawed science” (i.e. insufficient sample size, the presence of confounding factors, the lack of predefined models, and an insufficient consideration of the so-called “regression toward the mean” phenomenon). An in-depth analysis of the most relevant Italian case law will then show how “flawed science” has been applied in a justice dimension. In particular, analyzing the “L'Aquila case” will demonstrate how “flawed science” can bring about questionable outcomes as regards the establishment of the causal link between negligent conduct and the damage occurred. The paper will then move on to analyze the conflict between technology and progress in an environmental justice context. In order to illustrate this point, the “ILVA case” will serve as a rather effective example of how the so-called “supreme rights” can be avoided through the establishment and application of legitimate legislative tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responsible development of any technology, including nanotechnology, requires protecting workers, the first people to be exposed to the products of the technology. In the case of nanotechnology, this is difficult to achieve because in spite of early evidence raising health and safety concerns, there are uncertainties about hazards and risks. The global response to these concerns has been the issuance by authoritative agencies of precautionary guidance to strictly control exposures to engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). This commentary summarizes discussions at the ''Symposium on the Health Protection of Nanomaterial Workers'' held in Rome (25 and 26 February 2015). There scientists and practitioners from 11 countries took stock of what is known about hazards and risks resulting from exposure to ENMs, confirmed that uncertainties still exist, and deliberated on what it would take to conduct a global assessment of how well workers are being protected from potentially harmful exposures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relation between capitalism and ecological disaster in light of Marxist theories in relation to the book "Marx's Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism," by Peter Hudis. Topics include Marx's account of alienation, the notion of a Precautionary Principle in law and economics, and an instrumentalist approach to social justice.

This article situates the judgment of The Hague District Court inUrgenda Foundation v the Kingdom of the Netherlandswithin the life of global climate change litigation. To do so, the article concentrates on the legal particulars of Dutch law, elements of ‘diffused’ jurisprudence from other jurisdictions and the reasoning of the judgment that is ‘diffusible’. First, the Court's mandate for the State to take more robust and immediate climate mitigation action was informed by particulars of Dutch civil and constitutional law. Such particulars assisted with crossing the hurdles of standing of Dutch citizens in a climate change case, and the imposition of liability on the State for transboundary harm. Secondly, in relation to the separation of powers, there is clearly a marriage of ‘diffused’ jurisprudence from other jurisdictions and Dutch legal particulars with the primary effect of providingConnecticut v AEPa second life. Thirdly, aspects of the Court's reasoning are ‘diffusible’ or amenable to transnational borrowing. Notable in this regard is the Court's adoption of a procedural version of the precautionary principle, whereby the onus of proving adequacy and effectiveness of climate policy is shifted on to the State. However, caution must be exercised in adopting the Court's reasoning as to why the international (namely the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is identified as a preferred benchmark for allocation of climate targets as against the supranational (namely the Effort Sharing Decision of the EU) and the implicit economic reasoning as to why the State's policies are ineffective. To overcome this problem, it is suggested that the appointment of experts by judicial bodies may be the way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The process of preparing and enacting a biosafety law in Iran lasted more than a decade. This paper examines the process of biosafety policy-making in Iran in relation to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB) and to domestic Iranian factors. While some scholars argued that the CPB would be influential in developing countries, our findings indicate that it was not particularly important in Iranian biosafety legislation. This paper outlines the internal Iranian political processes, which initially envisaged a very precautionary approach, but which concluded with a biosafety law designed to promote the adoption of these technologies. Reference will be made to the changing influence of expert biotechnologists on policy-making. The dominance of domestic policy considerations, compared to CPB provisions, implies that signing the CPB does not imply that national regimes will converge on a common model, based on the text of the CPB. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses concerns by bioethicists over the application of the Precautionary Principle to genetics given the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindroic Repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 and laboratory success at gene editing in animals and humans. Topics cited include concerns over ethics, safety and bio-security as CRISPR migrates from the public university into entrepreneurial enterprises and the reasons for precaution including unpredictable consequences risk negative impact.

Australia is a federation of States. This political structure necessitates collaborative arrangements between Australian governments to harmonize national regulation of gene technology and food standards. Extensive political negotiation among institutions of federal government has managed regulation of GM crops and food. Well-developed human resources in Australian government provided numerous policy documents facilitating a transparent political process. Workable legislation has been devised in the face of criticisms of gene technology though the political process. Conflicts between potential disruptions to food commodity trade by precautionary proposals for environmental protection were one cause of political tensions, and differences in policy priorities at regional political levels versus national and international forums for negotiation were another. Australian policy outcomes on GM crops reflect (a) strong economic self-interest in innovative and productive farming, (b) reliance on global agricultural market reforms through the Cairns trade group and the WTO, and (c) the importance of Codex Alimentarius and WTO instruments SPS and TBT. Precautionary frameworks for GM food safety assurance that are inconsistent with WTO obligations were avoided in legislation. Since 2008 the 2 major parties, Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Liberals appear to have reached a workable consensus at the Federal policy level about an important role for agricultural biotechnology in Australia's economic future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Genetic engineering in agriculture raises contentious politics unknown in other applications of molecular technology. Controversy originated and persists for inter-related reasons; these are not primarily, as frequently assumed, differences over scientific findings, but rather about the relationship of science to ‘risk.’ First, there are inevitably differences in how to interpret ‘risk’ in situations in which there are no established findings of specific hazard; ‘Knightian uncertainty’ defines this condition. Science claims no method of resolution in such cases of uncertainty. Second, science has no claim about risk preferences in a normative sense. In genetic engineering, Knightian uncertainty is pervasive; declaring uncertainty to constitute ‘risk’ enables a precautionary politics in which no conceivable evidence from science can confirm absence of risk. This is the logic of theprecautionarystate. The logic of thedevelopmentalstate is quite different: uncertainty is treated as an inevitable component of change, and therefore a logic of acceptable uncertainty, parallel to acceptable risk of the sort deployed in cost-benefit analysis in other spheres of behavior, dominates policy. India's official position on agricultural biotechnology has been promotional, as expected from a developmental state, but regulation of Bt crops has rested in a section of the state operating more on precautionary than developmental logic. As a result, notwithstanding the developmental success of Bt cotton, Btbrinjal[eggplant, aubergine] encountered a moratorium on deployment despite approval by the regulatory scientific body designated to assess biosafety. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Regulations for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Korea fluctuate between technocracy and the precautionary principle (PP). Technocratic PP denotes the coexistence, or coproduction, of technocracy with PP – a complex ensemble of technocratic, precautionary policies, and hybrids of the two. This paper analyzes four types of PP-based policies linked to Korean GMO regulations: foresight and monitoring of risk; reverse burden of proof; public participation; and the public's right to know. Korean GMO regulations are consistent with the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, a type of PP, but lack long-term risk assessment as well as public participation. Technocracy is embedded both in advance informed agreements as a reverse burden of proof and in proof-based GMO labeling as a right-to-know policy. Technocratic PP results in inconsistencies between PP and technocratic epistemology and the gap between PP-based institutions and technocratic practices. Technocratic PP is therefore a typical phenomenon that occurs in the “glocalization” of risk regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the ethical implications of so-called ‘collateral damage’. It develops a moral typology of collateral harm to innocents, which occurs as a side effect of military or quasi-military action. Distinguishing between accidental and incidental collateral damage, it introduces four categories of such damage: negligent, oblivious, knowing and reckless collateral damage. Objecting mainstream versions of the doctrine of double effect, the article argues that in order for any collateral damage to be morally permissible, violent agents must comply with high standards of care. In order for incidental harm to be permissible, an agent must take pains to avoid such harm even at higher cost to him- or herself. It is argued that accidentally but negligently caused collateral damage may be just as difficult to excuse as incidental harm. Only if high precautionary standards of care are met, can unintended harm to innocents – incidental or accidental – be permissible. In practice, such a strong commitment to avoiding harm to civilians may well lead us to question more generally and rethink more radically how violent conflicts ought to be fought, how military violence ought to be used and whether there are better ways of achieving those aims that we think are legitimate than those we are currently using. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The European Union (EU) has adopted the precautionary principle (PP) as a legal principle for dealing with uncertain risks; that is situations in which the relationship between activities and their potential hazard cannot be established. While the PP's application has been defined by the European Commission and EU case law, political considerations ultimately determine whether and how it is invoked. This article reviews the literature on the PP's application in EU policy making by addressing three research questions: When do EU policy makers invoke the PP? How are EU precautionary policies made? Is the making of EU precautionary policies different from the making of regulatory policies addressing certain risks? While the conceptual literature provides some insights regarding all three questions, the empirical literature is particularly instructive regarding the first two questions. Future studies have the task of merging the two literatures in order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of EU precautionary policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]