Public policies guided by the precautionary principle : Politiques publiques guidées par le principe de précaution

The first part of this paper is aimed at clarifying the concept of precaution and the nature of the precautionary principle. [...] Activities whose effects are sometimes thought to justify invoking the precautionary principle include, in addition to the cultivation of GMOs, the production of nuclear energy, the administration of growth hormones to animals destined for human consumption, certain means of disposing of toxic or nuclear waste, and the use of nanoparticles.4 The general structure common to all formulations of the [...] The general organizing structure of the various versions of the principle comprises four main elements.5 The first will be referred to here as the damage condition. [...] The third element included in the generic structure of the principle is the description of a measure to be applied or an action to be taken. [...] The measure can also consist in requiring that specific information be provided to consumers, or in demanding that work be carried out to reduce the level of uncertainty.6 The Rio Declaration states that precautionary measures should be “effective,” “widely applied” and “immediate.” When these three elements are combined, the structure of all formulations of the precautionary principle takes the f