Precautionary Governance and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge : A Democratic Framework for Regulating Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology presents regulators with a difficult challenge. Nano materials and nanoprocesses involve deep uncertainties regarding their potential benefits and health and environmental risks, reflecting the embryonic state of the underlying science. These uncertainties have led various observers to argue that the regulation of nanotechnology should be based on the precautionary principle (PP). Another important theme which underlies the public debate regarding nanotechnology concerns the need for greater public participation in the regulatory process. This Article explores the intrinsic link between the calls to apply the PP to the domain of nanoregulation and the calls to subject the regulation of nanotechnology to deeper public scrutiny. It offers a new vision of the PP, which interprets it as a political framework for regulating risks. This vision responds, it is argued, to the foregoing dual demands. Further, the political interpretation of the PP also resolves the contested question of the meaning of the PP. The intrinsic vagueness of the PP has undermined its capacity to serve as a prescriptive principle, generating normative perplexities and inconsistencies. After presenting this general argument the Article discusses five key challenges that underlie the political interpretation of the PP, placing them in the context of the nanotechnology regulatory puzzle