POLITICS VERSUS SCIENCE: APPORTIONING ... - Buffalo State

Article 174 (environment) of the EC Treaty introduced the precautionary principle
into European Community law. The Commission extended it to food safety, first to
defend its ban on the importation of meat containing hormones and later in banning
GMOs. 4 Furthermore, the Commission lays out, in its communication on the
precautionary principle (Commission 2000d, 10), its justification for extending it to other
policy areas, writing that “Like other general notions contained in the legislation, such as
subsidiarity or proportionality, it is for the decision-makers and ultimately the courts to
flesh out the principle.” According to the Commission, the ECJ and Court of First
Instance had adjudicated cases at least partly drawing on the precautionary principle,
while both the European Parliament and Council had approved the use of the
precautionary principle in human health. Hence, the Commission (2000d, 10) concludes:
Although the precautionary principle is not explicitly mentioned in the Treaty
except in the environmental field, its scope is far wider and covers those specific
circumstances where scientific evidence is insufficient, inconclusive or uncertain
and there are indications through preliminary objective scientific evaluation that
there are reasonable grounds for concern that the potentially dangerous effects on
the environment, human, animal or plant health may be inconsistent with the
chosen level of protection.
Proponents of the precautionary principle have been frustrated in their efforts to
elevate it to the status of international law. When the WTO ruled against the EU’s ban on
beef from hormone-fed cattle, one group (Public Citizen) refered to it as “the evisceration
of the precautionary principle” and a demonstration that “the SPS Agreement exalts the
role of science far beyond the point it is appropriate, attempting to eliminate all ‘non-
science’ factors from standard setting” James Cameron (1999, 261).
4 The precautionary principle has informed EU policy on hormones and GMOs, despite formal complaints
filed by the U.S. and Canada in the WTO. (Commission 2000e, Vogel 2001).
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