Application Of The Precautionary Principle In Transboundary Environmental Protection ——By Taking Analysis Of Japan’s Nuclear Wastewater Discharge Into The Sea

With the advancement of science and technology,people’s utilization and transformation of the nature have become more in-depth.However,the current technological development level is limited,making it impossible to accurately predict and avoid possible transboundary environmental risks.Conventional concepts and measures of environmental protection are aimed at certain transboundary environmental risks.Therefore,to deal with such uncertain environmental risks,the precautionary principle emerges as the times require.In the second half of the 20 th century,the development of the society has relied on science and technology for a long time,and the precautionary principle is scientifically uncertain,so that it is difficult to be accepted by people soon.Consequently,issues such as the definition,the legal status,and the judicial application of the principle have been controversial since it is produced.Because in the field of transboundary environmental protection,prevention is the primary task,the precautionary principle is called the Golden Rule in the international environmental law.When people pay more attention to environmental protection,Japan announced in April 2021 that the nuclear waste water generated in the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident will be discharged into the sea in two years.As soon as this decision was made,it received widespread attention in the international community and was unanimously opposed by coastal countries.How to avoid the environmental damage caused by Japan’s behavior of discharge of nuclear waste water into the sea is the main problem we are facing at this stage,and applying the precautionary principle is the best solution.This article falls into five parts in total.The first part introduces the general situation of the precautionary principle;the second part mainly analyzes the application of the precautionary principle in the incident of Japan’s nuclear waste water discharge into the sea and the status of the precautionary principle in the international law;the third part lists the specific measures for applying the precautionary principle;the fourth part analyzes the difficulties and corresponding coping methods in the application of the precautionary principle,and puts forward some concrete suggestions;and the last part makes a brief summary of the full text.The first part mainly introduces the basic overview of the precautionary principle.The concept,the constituent elements,and the legal effect and status of the precautionary principle are lack of uniform norms internationally.Therefore,this article will first discuss the production background and the development process of the precautionary principle,which lays the foundation for the subsequent detailed analysis.The precautionary principle has gradually extended from the scope of the International Law of the Sea to other environmental law fields,and is regarded as a "general obligation" in International Environmental Conventions.The second part expounds the incident of Japan’s nuclear waste water discharge into the sea,and analyzes the feasibility of applying precautionary principle in this incident.Some scholars believe that the precautionary principle has been adopted in most environmental legal documents after the 1990 s.However,the precautionary principle is a controversial concept theoretically.Therefore,it is very necessary to clarify its legal concept and core elements.When applying the precautionary principle,the most critical issue is the status of the principle in the international law,that is,whether it is legally binding and whether it can be effectively implemented in practice.Therefore,the second part also analyzes the status of the precautionary principle in the international law.In the third part,the specific measures for applying the precautionary principle include substantive measures and procedural measures,both of which are analyzed separately.Subsequently,the fourth part analyzes the difficulties in the application of the precautionary principle,and proposes three coping methods: using the cost-benefit analysis method,optimizing the scientific evidence admissibility rules,and improving the environmental impact assessment system.At the same time,this part discusses the application of the precautionary principle to the incident of Japan’s nuclear waste water discharge into the sea in detail,which provides ideas for the international community to respond to the incident.The last part is a summary of the full text.