Fisher, Elizabeth; Harding, Ronnie --- "The Precautionary Principle and Administrative Constitutionalism: The Development of Frameworks for Applying the Precautionary Principle" [2006] ELECD 389; 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 6

Section Title: The Precautionary Principle and Administrative Constitutionalism: The Development of Frameworks for Applying the Precautionary Principle

Author(s): Fisher, Elizabeth; Harding, Ronnie

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

6. The precautionary principle and
administrative constitutionalism:
the development of frameworks
for applying the precautionary
principle1
Elizabeth Fisher and Ronnie Harding

The precautionary principle is now a common feature of environmental
and public health regimes in many different jurisdictions (de Sadeleer 2002,
Trouwborst 2002). The process of implementing the precautionary prin-
ciple has not stopped there however, and in numerous different jurisdictions
there has been a focus on developing general frameworks for implementa-
tion. Yet while there is a burgeoning literature on the legitimacy of the pre-
cautionary principle, there has been very little critical attention given to
these frameworks. This is a considerable deficiency in the literature when
one considers that they are one of the most important means of oper-
ationalizing it. An analysis of these frameworks provides insight into the
implications of applying the principle and the challenges involved in that
process of application.
This chapter is an introductory study of these frameworks and in it we
make three points. First, policy makers and commentators need to be aware
that developing these frameworks is not merely a matter of formulating
practical checklists. Rather, as a framework regulates what is acceptable
behaviour it will, by necessity, reflect and promote theories of what is a
legitimate role for public administration, or in other words theories of
administrative constitutionalism. Second, there is not one single theory of
administrative constitutionalism that is promoted by these frameworks. So
far, it can be seen that two different theories have tended to dominate the
...