Operationalizing the Precautionary Principle in Multilateral Environmental Regimes.

The precautionary principle, in its broadest context, rejects the assimilative capacity concept. The assimilative capacity concept suggests that science can accurately predict threats to the environment and identify technical possibilities to mitigate threats once they have been accurately predicted. Empirical evidence mounting that scientists often are unable to accurately predict the carrying capacity of ecosystems or the resilience of species in the face of anthropocentric assaults. Moreover, in an era marked by potential environmental crises of cataclysmic proportions, e.g. climate change and extinction spasms of unprecedented magnitudes, policy makers have become increasingly risk averse. As a consequence, many international environmental agreements drafted in recent years contain precautionary principle provisions. Parties to several other treaty regimes have also interpreted their treaties to be guided by the principle even when the principle is not made explicit in its text. Unfortunately, most incarnations of the precautionary principle remain, as one scholar recently observed, “little more than sound bites, sowing confusion and failing to contribute to meaningful protection of the environment.” This paper will (1) provide a history of the development of the precautionary principle and the underlying rationale for the principle; (2) examine the contours of the precautionary principle as developed in the context of multilateral environmental agreements; (3) discuss the ambiguities that inhere to most applications of the precautionary principle; and (4) suggest methods to operationalize the precautionary principle so as to provide clear guidelines for policymakers and regulators and to ensure effective application in multilateral environmental regimes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]