This overview of the role played by the precautionary principle in international trade law, European law and national law compares how precautionary considerations have been applied in the fields of pesticide regulation and the regulation of base stations for mobile telephones in Sweden, the UK and the US. A number of problems in the current application of the precautionary principle are identified and discussed. For example, it is shown that a firm reliance on a wide and open-ended precautionary principle may lead to problems with the consistency, foreseeability, effectiveness and efficiency of measures intended to reduce environmental or health risks. It is suggested that the precautionary principle indeed may be an important tool, but that in order to be acceptable it must be coupled with strong requirements on the performance of risk assessments, cost/benefit analyses and risk trade-off analyses.

Great uncertainty typically surrounds decisions and management actions in the conservation of biodiversity and natural resource management, and yet there are risks of serious and irreversible harm for both biodiversity and the humans that rely on it. The precautionary principle arguably underlies all international conservation efforts and promotes acting to avoid serious or irreversible environmental harm, despite lack of scientific certainty as to the likelihood, magnitude or cause of harm. This book is the first to examine the application of the precautionary principle to biodiversity conservation and natural resource management, incorporating perspectives from scientists, economists, lawyers and practitioners from both developing and developed countries. It analyses the application and impacts of the principle in many areas including forestry, invasive alien species, wildlife trade, protected areas and fisheries, in a range of national and international contexts. Particular attention is drawn to issues of equity, livelihoods, science and politics, and the book provides guidelines for applying the precautionary principle to biodiversity conservation and natural resource management.

Papers presented at the meetings facilitated by the Sanders Institute at the Faculty of Law of the Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Law School of the University of Hull.

This new fifth edition of Information Resources in Toxicology offers a consolidated entry portal for the study, research, and practice of toxicology. Both volumes represents a unique, wide-ranging, curated, international, annotated bibliography, and directory of major resources in toxicology and allied fields such as environmental and occupational health, chemical safety, and risk assessment. The editors and authors are among the leaders of the profession sharing their cumulative wisdom in toxicology's subdisciplines. This edition keeps pace with the digital world in directing and linking readers to relevant websites and other online tools.Due to the increasing size of the hardcopy publication, the current edition has been divided into two volumes to make it easier to handle and consult. Volume 1: Background, Resources, and Tools, arranged in 5 parts, begins with chapters on the science of toxicology, its history, and informatics framework in Part 1. Part 2 continues with chapters organized by more specific subject such as cancer, clinical toxicology, genetic toxicology, etc. The categorization of chapters by resource format, for example, journals and newsletters, technical reports, organizations constitutes Part 3. Part 4 further considers toxicology's presence via the Internet, databases, and software tools. Among the miscellaneous topics in the concluding Part 5 are laws and regulations, professional education, grants and funding, and patents. Volume 2: The Global Arena offers contributed chapters focusing on the toxicology contributions of over 40 countries, followed by a glossary of toxicological terms and an appendix of popular quotations related to the field.The book, offered in both print and electronic formats, is carefully structured, indexed, and cross-referenced to enable users to easily find answers to their questions or serendipitously locate useful knowledge they were not originally aware they needed. Among the many timely topics receiving increased emphasis are disaster preparedness, nanotechnology, -omics, risk assessment, societal implications such as ethics and the precautionary principle, climate change, and children's environmental health. - Introductory chapters provide a backdrop to the science of toxicology, its history, the origin and status of toxicoinformatics, and starting points for identifying resources - Offers an extensive array of chapters organized by subject, each highlighting resources such as journals, databases,organizations, and review articles - Includes chapters with an emphasis on format such as government reports, general interest publications, blogs, and audiovisuals - Explores recent internet trends, web-based databases, and software tools in a section on the online environment - Concludes with a miscellany of special topics such as laws and regulations, chemical hazard communication resources, careers and professional education, K-12 resources, funding, poison control centers, and patents - Paired with Volume Two, which focuses on global resources, this set offers the most comprehensive compendium of print, digital, and organizational resources in the toxicological sciences with over 120 chapters contributions by experts and leaders in the field

This study examines how the European Union has used the precautionary principle in legal decisions.

A study of the precautionary principle--its meaning, its rationale, its policy implications, and the controversies provoked by its use in environmental regulation.

The second edition of this leading reference work provides a comprehensive discussion of the dynamic and important field of international law concerned with environmental protection. It is edited by globally-recognised international environmental law scholars, Professor Lavanya Rajamani and Professor Jacqueline Peel, and features 67 chapters authored by 76 renowned experts in their fields. The Handbook discusses the key principles underpinning international environmental law, its relevant actors and tools, and rules applying in its substantive sub-fields such as climate law, oceans law, wildlife and biodiversity law, and hazardous substances regulation. It also explores the intersection of international environmental law with other areas of international law, such as those concerned with trade, investment, disaster, migration, armed conflict, intellectual property, energy, and human rights. The Handbook sets its discussion of international environmental law in the broader interdisciplinary context of developments in science, ethics, politics and economics, which inform the way in which environmental rules are made, implemented, and enforced. It provides an introduction to the foundations of international environmental law while also engaging with questions at the frontiers of research, teaching, and practice in the field, including the role of Global South perspectives, the contribution made by Earth jurisprudence, and the growing role of a diverse range of actors from indigenous peoples to business and industry. Like the first edition, this second edition of the Handbook is an essential reference text for all engaged with environmental issues at the international level and the applicable governance and regulatory structures.

This challenging book takes a broad and thought-provoking look at the precautionary principle and its implementation, or potential implementation, in a number of fields. In particular, the essays within the book explore the challenges faced by public decision-making processes when applying the precautionary principle, including its role in risk management and risk assessment. Frameworks for improved decision making are considered, followed by a detailed analysis of prospective applications of the precautionary principle in a number of emerging fields including: nanotechnology, climate change.

The book examines whether the jurisdiction of coastal States under international law can be extended to include powers of intervention towards vessels posing a significant risk to their coastal and marine environment, but which have not yet been involved in any incident or accident. The books sets out how it is that coastal State jurisdiction can indeed be seen as including powers of intervention towards High Risks Vessels before an incident or accident happens, on the basis of the precautionary principle. The precautionary principle requires taking action when a risk of damage to the environment is suspected, but cannot be confirmed scientifically.The book thus considers the potential opportunities for the coastal state under international law to regulate international shipping where they consider vessels to an unacceptable risk to the environment, in order to prevent or minimise the risk of occurrence of the accident or incident leading to damage. The book acknowledges that this puts into question some very old and established principles of the law of the sea, most importantly the principle of freedom of navigation. But Bénédicte Sage-Fuller contends that this change would itself be a consequence of the evolution, since the end of WWII, of on the one hand international law of the sea itself, and of international environmental law on the other hand.

First Published in 2010. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.