Foundations of Regulatory Choice: Precaution, Innovation … and Nonviolence?

Abstract

Two foundations of regulatory choice, precaution and innovation, co-exist in the political system of the European Union (EU). At the conceptual level the two foundations are complementary, and are both endorsed by the EU institutions, albeit in different ways and with different legal status. In the real-life of EU policymaking processes, however, precaution and innovation often become the terrain of polarised views anchored to technocratic or populist positions that erode trust in EU governance. We propose a way forward to this state of play. Instead of seeing the two foundations as opposite, we explore their dyadic relationship. We show that a conversation between the two is possible via an original reformulation of precaution and innovation. The reconciliation of precaution and innovation, we argue, is effective only in a context of social trust about the reconciled definitions. We propose the analytical and normative framework as seal of social trust. Nonviolence can assist the EU and its citizens in the path towards innovation that is socially responsible, future-proof and accountable, and enhance precaution as internalised commitment of decision-makers as well as scientific and social communities.

Unity in fragility: nonviolence and COVID-19

“…11 This is nothing new at the European level (see for instance: Science Communication Unit UWE, 2013). Yet, today's effort is to bolster these experiments, and more generally the connection between science, on the one hand, and the dyad of innovation and precaution as foundations of regulatory choice in the European Union (on this, we elaborate in Baldoli and Radaelli, 2021). It has been already said that science can strengthen attachment to the personal, social, and environmental dimensions of place, and additionally it has the potential to enhance both individual and collective social-ecological meanings (Toomey et al, 2020).…”