1 / 5

The Misapplication or Non-Application of the Precautionary Principle

FOUR NEW SQUARE LINCOLN’S INN. The Misapplication or Non-Application of the Precautionary Principle. Leigh-Ann Mulcahy. Requirements for principle to apply. Existence of risks: Potential risks have been identified as resulting from a product or process or action

donald
Download Presentation

The Misapplication or Non-Application of the Precautionary Principle

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. FOUR NEW SQUARE LINCOLN’S INN The Misapplication or Non-Application of the Precautionary Principle Leigh-Ann Mulcahy

  2. Requirements for principle to apply • Existence of risks: Potential risks have been identified as resulting from a product or process or action • Scientific uncertainty: Because of insufficiency of information or understanding it is impossible to determine the existence of or to quantify the extent of the risk in question

  3. Philosophy behind principle • Common sense appeal - “better safe than sorry” • Safety/elimination of risk (cf. – public expectation of safety in Product Liability Directive) • Risk assessment/management

  4. Problems of its application • Binding legal norm (EC/international customary law) or a policy guideline? • Scope? Environmental policy Art 174(2) EC Treaty -> consumer protection and human health issues generally • No common understanding of its meaning/ application • Too much discretion left to regulator?

  5. Consequences • Impact on risk to benefit evaluation • Result may be other (greater) risks (e.g. MMR) • Manufacturer - burden of disproving risk • Increased risk of liability/JR of regulator • Non-application – use as ‘sword’? (cf. ex p. Duddridge)

More Related