Date of Award
12-3-2014
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Laws (LLM)
First Advisor
Wood, John Stephan
Abstract
This thesis examines debates about the precautionary principle in a tribunal and judicial review proceeding where environmental groups and individuals challenged a proposal to burn tires and other non-traditional fuel sources at a cement plant in Ontario, Canada. Chapter 1 explores scholarship on the precautionary principle and outlines the unique analytical contributions offered by administrative constitutionalism theory. Chapter 2 sets out the case study methodology employed by the author. Chapter 3 explains the legislative context. In chapters 4 through 9, each participant’s arguments are analyzed in relation to the two paradigms of administrative constitutionalism: Rational-Instrumentalist and Deliberative-Constitutive. This thesis establishes that administrative constitutionalism discourse dominates the construction and contestation of environmental risk; the author further argues that administrative constitutionalism’s discursive dominance has an exclusionary impact on the people, ideas and interests represented in environmental risk regulation.
Recommended Citation
Gordian, Savitri Vasanta, "Contesting Risk, Precaution and Legitimacy: A Case Study of Lafarge" (2014). LLM Theses. 17.
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/llm/17