ABSTRACT
The ‘precautionary principle’ is becoming an increasingly prominent theme in the debate over technological risk. Many questions are raised over the implications for policy making. In particular, concerns have been expressed over the relationship between ‘precautionary’ and more traditional ‘science-based’ approaches to decision making such as cost-benefit and risk analysis. Fears are sometimes raised that – unlike risk assessment – a ‘precautionary approach’ is too ambiguous and impractical to serve as a basis for real decision making, that it is somehow antagonistic to science and even that it threatens to stifle technological innovation and economic growth.
