ABSTRACT
Over the last decade, the precautionary principle has become one of the most highprofile and contentious principles within European Union (EU) risk regulation and the principle has given rise to a burgeoning body of complex primary and secondary material as well as an overwhelming variety of arguments about its nature and validity (O’Riordan et al. 2001).1 In particular the principle has seemingly become a ‘touchstone’ for thinking about the challenges involved in regulating risk in a globalising world. Concerning both, the internal and external exercise of state power (de Sadeleer 2002; Wiener and Rogers 2002), the European principle of precaution, and the academic debate which surrounds it within an EU context, proves to be an exemplary starting point for further consideration of, and comparison between, national, EU and international regulatory models for risk standard setting.
