Research Paper Number

23/2008

This research paper has been published in the Osgoode Hall Law Journal located in the Journals section of the Osgoode Digital Commons and available here.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2008

Keywords

environmental justice; pollution; precaution; risk; socio-legal analysis

Abstract

The central aim of this article is to demonstrate a socio-legal approach to risk and precaution using the example of chronic pollution. Drawing on ongoing empirical work with the Aamjiwnaang First Nation, which is tucked into Sarnia's "Chemical Valley," a secondary aim is to influence and shape how we understand the problem and confront the risks of chronic pollution. This article forwards the argument that the prevailing regulatory approach is incapable of capturing the essence of contemporary pollution harms, because those harms are increasingly linked to continuous, routine, low-dose exposures to contaminants that are within legally sanctioned limits. Community residents and advocates struggling against chronic pollution are increasingly identifying with the environmental justice movement and adopting its strategies of resistance, including its mantra of "precaution." These strategies of resistance have the potential to dramatically expose the impotence of the prevailing regulatory approach to chronic pollution.

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