Question 8768 — dangerous products

Summary

The precautionary principle was enshrined in our constitution in 2005, in article 5 of the Environmental Charter; it has already appeared since 1995 in article L. 110-1 of the environmental code, after having been recognized in international law following the Rio Declaration of 1992, in particular in the law and in the jurisprudence of the European Union. This principle requires public authorities, when the occurrence of damage, even if it is still uncertain given the state of scientific knowledge, could seriously and irreversibly affect the environment, on the one hand to adopt provisional and proportionate measures in order to prevent the occurrence of this damage, and on the other hand to implement assessments to reduce uncertainties. The analysis recently published by the Council of State as part of its report on taking risk into account in the public decision concludes that this principle is in no way opposed to the requirements of research and innovation: it is indeed a principle of action, which allows public authorities to act as best as possible in the collective interest based on the knowledge available and its limits at a given moment, while encouraging the production of knowledge making it possible to better assess the potential benefits and risks. The credibility of scientific expertise is based first of all on respect for the principles of impartiality, transparency, plurality and contradictoriness, as recalled for example in article L. 1452-1 of the public health code; these principles find their application in particular in the Charter of health expertise to ensure the quality of the expertise with regard to the competence and independence of those who conduct it, the traceability of the sources used, the transparency of the methods implemented and the clarity of the conclusions. Respect for these principles must be accompanied by awareness-raising and communication actions allowing the information thus produced to be shared with the public, giving everyone the means to deal with rumors and unfounded allegations which can be relayed by different media, if necessary under the influence of different interest groups.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

No documents linked.

Sponsors

• Rémi Delatte · auteur

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.