Regulatory Precaution. A European Mode of Governing Technical Objects

This paper focuses on the European REACH regulation on chemicals. We analyze the operations crafting regulatory categories that define technical objects and organize the distribution of powers between public and private, national and European actors. This article suggests that the concept of “regulatory precaution” helps characterize a European mode of governing chemicals. The examples of the registration of nanomaterials and that of the autorisation of phtalates highlight the choice made by the European Commission in favour of a “case by case approach” that ends up multiplying regulatory categories, while postponing the introduction of legal constraints. These initiatives are not consensual: member states and the European Parliament produce more rigid regulatory categories, and thereby suggest an alternative mode of governing chemicals. Thus, regulatory precaution offers a lens through which one can identify the constitutional effects of the regulatory categories for European technical objects.