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Godard, Olivier --- "The Precautionary Principle and Catastrophism on Tenterhooks: Lessons from Constitutional Reform in France" [2006] ELECD 387; in Fisher, Elizabeth; Jones, Judith; von Schomberg, René (eds), "Implementing the Precautionary Principle" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Implementing the Precautionary Principle

Editor(s): Fisher, Elizabeth; Jones, Judith; von Schomberg, René

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845427023

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: The Precautionary Principle and Catastrophism on Tenterhooks: Lessons from Constitutional Reform in France

Author(s): Godard, Olivier

Number of pages: 25

Extract:

4. The precautionary principle and
catastrophism on tenterhooks:
lessons from a constitutional reform
in France
Olivier Godard1

INTRODUCTION

The precautionary principle (PP) has been introduced and progressively
acknowledged in environmental law for more than fifteen years, but to a
differing extent in international, European and domestic law. Outside
Europe, many countries still refuse to give it legal effect, although it is
reflected in a number of international agreements, even in the World Trade
Organization (WTO) Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement
(Noiville 2000). Within the European Union, the PP has been a legal norm
for environmental protection since the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 (Article
174(2)); the EU regulation of food safety in 2002 has confirmed its rele-
vance in the field of public health, something that had already been estab-
lished by case law, at least since 1998 in the context of the BSE crisis.
During the same period of time, sound elements of doctrine had been pro-
gressively set up by academic work and within policy circles. Official policy
statements eventually legitimized this doctrine at the EU level. Stepping
stones in this regard are the Communication of the Commission in
February 2000 and the Resolution of the European Council held in Nice in
December 2000. In spite of these achievements, debates about the concep-
tual structure of the PP and the conditions and means to put it into prac-
tice have not stopped. Opposite expectations arose and fed controversies
between experts and in the public debate.
Thus, since the ...