ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the connection between the precautionary principle in environmental law and preventive justice scholarship, from the perspective of environmental law. It has two aims. First, the chapter traces the claims about the precautionary principle in the preventive justice literature back to their environmental roots. Second, it argues that the precautionary principle and principles of preventive justice ought to be understood as part of the same rule of law project – that is, the project of ensuring that all public decisions are publicly justified on the basis of core constitutional principles. The chapter discusses the characterisation of the precautionary principle portrayed in the preventive justice scholarship. It then situates the partial characterisation of the precautionary principle within its environmental context. Finally, the chapter argues that the connection between the precautionary principle and preventive justice comes at the foundational level of a commitment to democratic governance under the rule of law.
