# Precautionary principle

`kaal:entity:precautionary-principle`

**Status.** derived

This node is assembled mechanically from the 6 claims that carry the concept tag `precautionary-principle`. It is a roster of what the corpus says under this term. It is **not** an adjudicated definition: no single statement here has been ruled canonical, and no first-appearance call has been made. Read the claims and judge for yourself.

## Every claim under this term

6 claims across 1 works, 2017 to 2017.

**2017**

- [2834531-014](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2834531-014) [mechanism/argued] *(failure mode)* -- Regulators too often define success negatively, as the avoidance of catastrophe, which makes regulatory experimentation unattractive to them.
  > Too often, regulators define "success" in negative terms, as in the avoidance of catastrophe.
  Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, Regulation Tomorrow What Happens When Technology Is Faster Than the Law (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2834531
- [2834531-015](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2834531-015) [mechanism/argued] *(failure mode)* -- Because regulators seek to avoid grounds for criticism, they inevitably adopt an overly cautious posture, which is what the precautionary principle amounts to in practice.
  > Avoiding grounds for criticism inevitably results in an overly cautious approach, called the "precautionary principle."
  Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, Regulation Tomorrow What Happens When Technology Is Faster Than the Law (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2834531
- [2834531-016](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2834531-016) [failure/argued] *(failure mode)* -- Regulatory caution produces a systematic disconnect between the regulation of an innovation and the commercial and consumer ability to access it.
  > The result is that, all too often, there is a disconnect between regulation and commercial and consumer access to that innovation.
  Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, Regulation Tomorrow What Happens When Technology Is Faster Than the Law (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2834531
- [2834531-017](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2834531-017) [mechanism/argued] *(failure mode)* -- Faced with disruptive innovation, regulators believe their only options are reckless action, meaning regulation without sufficient facts, or paralysis, meaning doing nothing; in that bind caution beats risk and the precautionary principle becomes the default.
  > Regulators can find themselves in a situation where they believe they must opt for either reckless action (regulation without sufficient facts) or paralysis (doing nothing). Inevitably in such a case, caution tends to trump risk. The precautionary principle becomes the default position.
  Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, Regulation Tomorrow What Happens When Technology Is Faster Than the Law (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2834531
- [2834531-018](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2834531-018) [failure/argued] *(failure mode)* -- Regulatory caution is not neutral: it functions to reinforce the status quo, with the result that new technologies struggle to reach the market in a timely or efficient manner.
  > But such caution merely functions to reinforce the status quo and the result is that new technologies struggle to reach the market in a timely or efficient manner.
  Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, Regulation Tomorrow What Happens When Technology Is Faster Than the Law (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2834531
- [2834531-030](https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/2834531-030) [mechanism/argued] -- In a world where regulatory competition is the new normal, regulators can pay a heavy economic price for being overly cautious or for abandoning the attempt to establish a meaningful basis for regulation, because first mover markets capture the benefits.
  > regulators can pay a heavy economic price for being overly cautious or abandoning the project of trying to establish a meaningful basis for regulation.
  Mark Fenwick, Wulf A. Kaal, Erik P. M. Vermeulen, Regulation Tomorrow What Happens When Technology Is Faster Than the Law (2017). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2834531

## Verify

Every claim above resolves to a record carrying a verbatim source quote, the sha256 of the source PDF, and a preformatted citation. Nothing here asks to be taken on trust.

    curl -s https://wulfkaal.github.io/entities/precautionary-principle.md | sha256sum

**Canonical form.** This markdown file is the canonical hashed representation of this entity node. Its sha256 is the content hash.