Abstract
Part I of this paper provides a brief overview of the development of biotechnology, its regulation and its use, with a particular emphasis on agricultural biotechnology. Part II outlines the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which provides an international legal framework for a biosafety protocol and summarizes the results of recent protocol negotiations, such as those conducted in Cartagena, Colombia in February 1999, which continued in Montreal in January 2000. Part III explains why the proposed protocol embodies a variant of the precautionary principle and why such policies may do more harm than good. This paper concludes with some brief thoughts on how to approach the potential and uncertain risks and benefits of new technologies in general and of biotechnology in particular.
Keywords
International Law, International Biosafety Protocol
Publication Date
2000
Document Type
Article
Place of Original Publication
Texas International Law Journal
Publication Information
35 Texas International Law Journal 173 (2000)
Repository Citation
Adler, Jonathan H., "More Sorry than Safe: Assessing the Precautionary Principle and the Proposed International Biosafety Protocol" (2000). Faculty Publications. 226.
https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/faculty_publications/226
