Author: Whiteside, Kerry H.
Title: Precautionary Politics : Principle and Practice in Confronting Environmental Risk
Description: Cambridge [MA], MIT Press, 2006. orig.wrappers. 23x15cm, xiii,182 pp, PAPERBACK.. Minor rubbing. VG. ¶ This work is a study of the precautionary principle - its meaning, its rationale, its policy implications, and the controversies provoked by its use in environmental regulation. The precautionary principle - which holds that action to address threats of serious or irreversible environmental harm should be taken even in the absence of scientific certainty - has been accepted as a key feature of environmental law throughout the European Union. In the United States, however, it is still widely unknown, and much of what has been written on the topic takes a negative view. " Precautionary Politics" provides a comprehensive analysis of the precautionary principle - its origins and development, its meaning and rationale, its theoretical context, and its policy implications. Kerry Whiteside looks at the application of the principle (and the controversies it has stirred) and compares European and American attitudes toward it and toward environmental regulation in general. Too often, Whiteside argues, American critics of the precautionary principle pay insufficient attention to how the principle has been debated, refined, and elaborated elsewhere. Precautionary Politics fills this gap. Whiteside demonstrates the different responses of Europe and the United States, first by describing the controversy over genetically modified crops, and then by using this example throughout the book to illustrate application of the precautionary principle in different contexts..." - Publisher's description.

Keywords: Environmental Risk, Risk Assessment, Precautionary, Principle, Political, Participation, Politics, Environment,