Charte de l'environnement et principe de précaution. Un autre regard

In May 2004 (no. 297), Futuribles devoted a long dossier, in the “Forum” section, to the debate about adding the Charter for the Environment to the French Constitution. Although the parliamentary debate on the Charter is now over, with the Senate’s approval of its inclusion in the Constitution, we return to this topic by giving space to Jacques Bourdillon, who sets out the arguments of those opposed to making it part of the Constitution. As he emphasizes, their main fear relates to the precautionary principle which, by being given constitutional weight (and hence outweighing other law), threatens to paralyse all innovation, by increasing judicial intervention in social and economic matters. This addition to the dossier begun in May thus widens the debate just as the French parliament is scheduled to hold a special congress this autumn in order to give final ratification to this change to the Constitution.