Dr Liz Fisher
Tutorial Fellow in Law, Corpus Christi College, Oxford University
Date: 14 February 2006
Time: 1:00pm - 2:30pm
Venue: CARR Seminar Room, H615
Abstract
The public setting of standards and appraisal of risks in relation to technological risks has been one of the most controversial areas of regulation in recent years and given rise to a range of legal disputes in various jurisdictions. Disputes in this area have largely been characterized as disputes between those who argue that science and expertise are the proper basis for risk decision-making and those that argue that democracy and values are. In this paper, by using administrative law as a starting point, I argue that this dichotomy is wrong. Legal disputes are primarily disputes over how law should constitute and limit public administration where there are competing understandings of what the role and nature of good administration is and should be.
Biography
Dr Elizabeth Fisher is Tutorial Fellow and Lecturer in Law, Corpus Christi College and Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. She works on comparative risk regulation and has written widely on risk regulation, public law issues, and the precautionary principle.