The Precautionary Principle as a Guide to Policy-Making

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The “precautionary principle” (hereafter referred to as the PP), analogous to the folk wisdom of “better safe than sorry”, argues that occasionally scientific certainty of a harmful effect is not required before taking preventive measures. The principle has gained momentum in recent decades, particularly for environmental policy, being invoked in such important documents as the 1969 Swedish Environmental Protection Act or the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. While it has been lauded by some as offering a much-needed alternative to orthodox approaches to environmental management, others have criticised it as being vacuous or even harmful. I will argue that the PP cannot be a seen as a guide to environmental policymaking in the sense that it cannot be a decision-making principle because it is a contested concept, but that it can be a useful epistemic framework for encouraging reforms as its value and usefulness lie not in providing clarity, but in challenging the status quo by sparking controversy and a consultative process. The non-existence of an overarching definition of the Precautionary Principle Most of the criticisms mentioned above refer to the PP as if there was only one version of it; however there are currently about 19 different versions of it in treaties, academic writings and laws (Sandin 1999). And this does not exhaust the range of possibilities: while both Manson (2002) and Sandin (1999) list key components of the PP and suggest frameworks consisting of three or respectively four key elements, the scope of definitions for each of these elements result in 294 or respectively 8100 possible combinations. While the necessity of a minimum of precaution appears natural, controversy about the PP is often about the precise interpretations of its core elements; definitions vary in stringency (degree of cautiousness) and precision (Sandin

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