Application Of The Precautionary Principle In Practice: Comp

Description:
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.

Table of Contents:
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.

Author Biography:
Dr Joakim Zander is currently responsible for the free movement of goods and services at the EFTA Surveillance Authority in Brussels. He has previously worked as a legal officer in DG Enterprise of the European Commission and as a political assistant in the European Parliament. He holds a PhD in law from Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and a Master of Laws degree (juris kandidat) from Uppsala University, Sweden.