It is said that these measures are justified by the precautionary principle. However, this principle does not sit well with individual liberty. It puts pressure on officials to take steps in the absence of clear evidence and gives permission for arbitrary decisions. Rather than balancing risk against liberty, the effect of this principle is that liberty is what you have left after all possible precautions have been taken. In effect it sets the value of liberty at naught before balancing commences
Read More
The Council views some human rights and civil liberties as so fundamental that they should never be curtailed. These include habeas corpus and the prohibitions against slavery, torture and secret trials. John Stuart Mill also accepted that free speech was a right not subject to a simple balancing analysis.