Better Safe Than Sorry: The Precautionary Principle as a Slogan

This article examines the versatility of the precautionary principle in EU environmental law, highlighting its dual nature as both a general policy statement and a legally significant concept. Building on an expanding body of literature that explores the multiple roles of environmental principles in legal reasoning, the article focuses on the unique malleability of the precautionary principle. It argues that this malleability stems from the principle's inherent "sloganistic" qualities—its capacity to simplify complex ideas, remain definitionally flexible, galvanise disparate actors, and function simultaneously as a policy statement and a policy-implementation tool. The article unfolds in three parts. First, it reviews legal and academic literature to show how the precautionary principle, despite its legal entrenchment, continues to embody intuitive policy ideas. Its flexibility enables it to operate across a range of legal and political contexts, although this also raises methodological challenges when interpreting the principle in specific legal settings. Second, it draws on policy communication literature to identify four key characteristics of slogans and demonstrates how each maps onto features commonly attributed to the precautionary principle. Third, the article explores the implications of this sloganistic nature for legal reasoning. Using case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union, it shows that these qualities persist even in concretised legal applications of the principle. The article concludes by suggesting that this dual character—simultaneously legal and policy-driven—has important consequences for how the precautionary principle is interpreted and applied, meriting further investigation.