The precautionary principle was formulated to provide a basis for political action to protect the environment from potentially severe or irreversible harm in circumstances of scientific uncertainty that prevent a full risk or cost-benefit analysis. It underpins environmental law in the European Union and has been extended to include public health and consumer safety. The aim of this study was to examine how the precautionary principle has been interpreted and subsequently applied in practice, whether these applications were consistent, and whether they followed the guidance from the Commission. A review of the literature was used to develop a framework for analysis, based on three attributes: severity of potential harm, standard of evidence (or degree of uncertainty), and nature of the regulatory action. This was used to examine 15 pieces of legislation or judicial decisions. The decision whether or not to apply the precautionary principle appears to be poorly defined, with ambiguities inherent in determining what level of uncertainty and significance of hazard justifies invoking it. The cases reviewed suggest that the Commission's guidance was not followed consistently in forming legislation, although judicial decisions tended to be more consistent and to follow the guidance by requiring plausible evidence of potential hazard in order to invoke precaution.
Abstract: In this paper we examine the appropriateness and significance of the law of exception in the Spanish constitutional order. For this, we have examined the models of Comparative Law that Spain has followed to restore its disturbed constitutional order. Basically, historically, concern arose at the time of North American and French Revolutions of how to incorporate into the Constitution the institutions related to their protection. British singularity was also manifested in the way of understanding and including specific protection for the defence of the Constitution and the law of exception, with institutions such as martial law or habeas corpus. The suspension of habeas corpus as an extraordinary instrument of protection of the state organization was considered in the American Constitution of 1787, and is thought of as a precedent of Article 55.1 of the current Spanish Constitution of 1978. During the period between 1812 and 1869, the law of exception contemplated in Spanish Historical Constitutions covers only the suspension of guarantees. The republican Constitution of 1931 conserved the outline of the Constitution of 1869, with certain relevant alterations. The most significant normative instruments of this legislation were the Law of Defence of the Republic and the Law of Public Order of 1933. After the publication of this last Law, it became the extraordinary norm that has most deeply and habitually been put into practice, since Spain has experienced practically a permanent situation of "constitutional abnormality". This highlights the fact that a Law of Public Order for the defence of the constitutional regime established by the Second Republic could be transferred in many of its precepts, with very similar contents to the Francoist Law of Public Order that was able to remain in force until much later, being finally repealed by the Organic Law of LO 1/1992, of Protection of Citizen Safety. ; Resumen: En este trabajo examinamos el encaje y significación que alcanza el derecho de excepción en nuestro ordenamiento constitucional. Para ello hemos examinado los modelos de Derecho Comparado que ha seguido España para restaurar el ordenamiento constitucional perturbado. Históricamente, será, básicamente, con las Revoluciones norteamericana y francesa cuando surge la preocupación por incorporar a la Constitución las instituciones relativas a su protección. La singularidad británica, también se manifiesta en el modo de entender y concretar la defensa de la Constitución y el derecho de excepción, con instituciones como la martial law o el habeas corpus. La suspensión del habeas corpus como instrumento extraordinario de protección de la organización estatal se contemplará en la Constitución norteamericana de 1.787, pudiéndose considerar como precedente del actual artículo 55.1 de nuestra vigente Constitución de 1978. Durante el período comprendido entre 1812 y 1869, el derecho de excepción contemplado en las Constituciones históricas españolas abarca únicamente la suspensión de garantías. La Constitución republicana de 1931, conservó el bosquejo de la Constitución de 1869, con determinadas alteraciones relevantes. Los instrumentos normativos más significativos de esta legislación son la Ley de Defensa de la República y la Ley de Orden Público de 1933. Tras la publicación de esta última Ley, la norma extraordinaria que más profunda y habitualmente se ha puesto en práctica, nuestro país experimentó prácticamente una permanente situación de "anormalidad constitucional". Destacar el hecho de que una Ley de Orden Público aprobada para la defensa del régimen constitucional instaurado por la II República pudo ser trasladada en muchos de sus preceptos, con contenidos muy similares, a la Ley de Orden Público franquista, consiguiendo mantenerse vigente mucho después, hasta ser finalmente derogada por la L.O. 1/1992, de Protección de la Seguridad Ciudadana.
L'European Law Faculties Association (http://elfa-afde.eu/) va fer l'assemblea i la conferència anual (http://elfa-afde.eu/agm-2014-strasbourg/), coorganitzada amb el Parlament Europeu, els dies 19 a 21 de març d'aquest any, a Estrasburg. ; In collaboration with the European Parliament, the European Law Faculties Association (http://elfa-afde.eu/) held its annual general meeting and annual conference (http://elfa-afde.eu/agm-2014-strasbourg/) from 19–20 March this year in Strasbourg. ; La European Law Faculties Association (http://elfa-afde.eu/) celebró la asamblea y la conferencia anual (http://elfa-afde.eu/agm-2014-strasbourg/), coorganizada con el Parlamento Europeo, los días 19 a 21 de marzo de este año, en Estrasburgo.
Western legal tradition gave the birth to the concept of the rule of law. Legal theory and constitutional justice significantly contributed to the crystallisation of its standards and to moving into the direction of the common concept of the rule of law. The European Court of Human Rights uses this concept as an interpretative tool, the extension of which is the quality of the law doctrine, which encompasses concrete requirements for the law under examination in this Court, such as prospectivity of law, its foreseeability, clarity etc. The author of the article, former judge of the Lithuanian Constitutional Court and currently the judge of the European Court of Human Rights, examines how the latter court has gradually intensified (not always consistently) its reliance on the rule of law as a general principle, inherent in all the Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, to the extent that in some of its judgments it concentrates not anymore on the factual situation of an individual applicant, but, first and foremost, on the examination of the quality of the law. The trend is that, having found the quality of the applicable law to be insufficient, the Court considers that the mere existence of contested legislation amounts to an unjustifiable interference into a respective right and finds a violation of respective provisions of the Convention. This is an indication of the Court's progressing self-approximation to constitutional courts, which are called to exercise abstract norm-control.La tradición occidental alumbró la noción del Estado de Derecho. La teoría del Derecho y la Justicia Constitucional han contribuido decisivamente a la cristalización de sus estándares, ayudando a conformar un acervo común en torno al mismo. El Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos emplea la noción de Estado de Derecho como una herramienta interpretativa, fundamentalmente centrada en la doctrina de la calidad de la ley, que implica requisitos concretos que exige el Tribunal tales como la claridad, la previsibilidad, y la certeza en la redacción y aplicación de la norma. El autor, en la actualidad Juez del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos y anterior Magistrado del Tribunal Constitucional de Lituania, examina cómo el primero ha intensificado gradualmente (no siempre de forma igual de consistente) su confianza en el Estado de Derecho como principio general, inherente a todos los preceptos que forman el Convenio Europeo de Derechos Humanos, hasta el punto de que en algunas de sus resoluciones se concentra no tanto en la situación de hecho del demandante individual sino, sobre todo y ante todo, en el examen de esa calidad de la ley. La tendencia del Tribunal es a considerar que, si observa que la ley no goza de calidad suficiente, la mera existencia de la legislación discutida supone una interferencia injustificable dentro del derecho en cuestión y declara la violación del precepto correspondiente del Convenio. Esto implica el acercamiento progresivo del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos a los Tribunales Constitucionales, quienes tienen encargado el control en abstracto de la norma legal.
Mediation is playing a growing role nowadays, strongly promoted by the European Union. However, Administrative law remains a legal area riddle with obstacles to the ADR and to mediation. Social changes and the mutation of administrative structures require the search of new ways to solve administrative disputes. Because of this, the Spanish Consejo General del Poder Judicial has favored the implementation of administrative mediation by means of pilot projects. ; Presenciamos un momento de creciente fascinación por la mediación. Sin embargo, el Derecho administrativo se presenta históricamente como un ámbito plagado de obstáculos frente a las ADR y, por tanto, frente a la mediación. Sin embargo, los cambios sociales y la mutación de las estructuras administrativas llevan a buscar nuevos cauces para la resolución de los conflictos con la Administración. La mediación se ha visto fuertemente impulsada por la Unión Europea y en el ámbito interno, el Consejo General del Poder Judicial ha propiciado la incorporación de la mediación administrativa mediante proyectos pilotos que impulsan el consenso.
