| Almost universally, environmental health advocates now place their faith in an emerging legal doctrine called the 'precautionary principle' and its capacity to fundamentally transform environmental and health decision-making with respect to potential, but uncertain harms. This dissertation asks whether this faith is misplaced; whether the new 'precautionary paradigm' is simply an updated version of the well-worn 'risk paradigm' for decision-making, that is, the same old familiar routines of risk assessment, prediction and management clad in new language. While the dissertation presents ample evidence for this contention, it concludes, however, that the precautionary principle should not be discounted entirely, notwithstanding the serious limitations to its current applications.; In a series of case studies, I examine the precautionary principle as a legal instrument in the dispute settlement deliberations of the World Trade Organization, as a rhetorical instrument in the debate over genetically-modified foods, and as a policy instrument in the handling of the West Nile Virus by the city of Toronto in 2003. In the first two cases, the precautionary principle falls well short of its potential. And while the case of West Nile Virus indicates that the precautionary principle can inspire positive, innovative changes in situations of uncertainty and opposing risks, this case also fails to uncover the transformative potential that environmental health advocates have claimed for the precautionary principle.; In reflecting on the interaction between precaution in practice and the entrenched discourses and routines of the 'risk paradigm' in the three case studies, I argue that contemporary conceptions of risk and precaution are mutually constituted: the parameters of the risk paradigm continue to shape and mold the implementation of precaution, and in turn, the precautionary principle legitimates (and thus perpetuates) the risk frame by updating its language and placating activists while maintaining its core practices. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of strategies for resisting the risk frame and restoring the transformative potential of the precautionary principle. |
