Globalization and technology have altered public fears and changed expectations of how government should make people safer. This book analyzes how Europeans and Americans perceive and regulate risk. The authors show how public fears about risk are filtered through political systems to pressure governments to insure against risk.

The 'Precautionary Principle' has sparked the central controversy over European and U.S. risk regulation. The Reality of Precaution is the most comprehensive study to go beyond precaution as an abstract principle and test its reality in practice. This groundbreaking resource combines detailed case studies of a wide array of risks to health, safety, environment and security; a broad quantitative analysis; and cross-cutting chapters on politics, law, and perceptions. The authors rebut the rhetoric of conflicting European and American approaches to risk, and show that the reality has been the selective application of precaution to particular risks on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as a constructive exchange of policy ideas toward 'better regulation.' The book offers a new view of precaution, regulatory reform, comparative analysis, and transatlantic relations.

Laws and regulations affect the daily lives of businesses and citizens. It is important that they are designed in a way that takes account of their social, environmental and business impacts and ensures they remain relevant in today’s fast-changing context. The second edition of the Better Regulation Practices across the European Union report analyses recent developments and current practices for improving the quality of laws and regulations across all 27 EU Member States and the European Union.

A growing body of EU law and regulation is preoccupied with the protection of EU citizens from health and environmental risks. Which chemicals are safe and should be allowed on the market? How should the EU respond to public health emergencies, such as Ebola and other infectious diseases? Regulatory responses to these questions confront deep uncertainty, limited knowledge and societal contestation. In a time where the use of scientific expertise in EU policy-making is particularly contested, this book offers a timely contribution to both the academic and policy debate on the role of specialised expertise in EU public decision-making on risk and technology as well as on its intertwinement with executive power. It draws on insights from law, governance, political sciences, and science and technology studies, bringing together leading scholars in this field. Contributions are drawn together by a shared theoretical perspective, namely by their use of co-production as an analytical lens to study the intricate interplay between techno-scientific expertise and EU executive power. By so doing, this collection produces highly original insights into the development of the EU administrative state, as well as into the role of regulatory science in its construction. This book will be useful to scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers working on risk regulation and the role of expertise in public decision-making.

Examining one of the fastest growing industries in the world, Ronit Justo-Hanani compares the distinctly different approaches between both sides of the Atlantic when regulating the health, safety and environmental risks of nanotechnology and its novel properties. Looking at ongoing adjustments to existing laws, Justo-Hanani details how and why, in contrast to the United States, the European Union has adopted a far more stringent, comprehensive regulatory policy for nanotechnology safety. This illuminating book shows that despite the US' prominence in global nanotechnology markets, the strict rules of the EU have been at the forefront of market regulations across the globe. With a full and comparative account of the politics and regulatory processes of nanotechnology safety in the EU and US, it ultimately argues that the EU's adaptive and proactive, capacity-building strategy, is the key to strengthening its role as a global regulatory leader. This timely book will be useful to students and scholars of regulation and governance; science, technology, and innovation policy; environmental and health policy; and international law and politics. Its practical applications will also be of interest to policymakers concerned with the advancements of nanotechnology.

Chemicals play an important role in everyday life. However, some chemicals are highly toxic and need to be regulated. In 1976, the Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to authorize the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to control chemicals that pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment, but some have questioned whether TSCA provides EPA with enough tools to protect against chemical risks. Like the United States, the European Union (EU) has laws governing the production and use of chemicals. The EU has recently revised its chemical control policy through legislation known as Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) in order to better identify and mitigate risks from chemicals. GAO was asked to review the approaches used under TSCA and REACH for (1) requiring chemical companies to develop information on chemicals' effects, (2) controlling risks from chemicals, and (3) making information on chemicals available to the public. To review these issues, GAO analyzed applicable U.S. and EU laws and regulations and interviewed U.S. and EU officials, industry representatives, and environmental advocacy organizations. GAO is making no recommendation ...