Wood, John Stephan2015-08-282015-08-282014-12-032015-08-28http://hdl.handle.net/10315/29950This thesis examines debates about the precautionary principle in a tribunal and judicial review proceeding where environmental groups and individuals challenged a proposal to burn tires and other non-traditional fuel sources at a cement plant in Ontario, Canada. Chapter 1 explores scholarship on the precautionary principle and outlines the unique analytical contributions offered by administrative constitutionalism theory. Chapter 2 sets out the case study methodology employed by the author. Chapter 3 explains the legislative context. In chapters 4 through 9, each participant’s arguments are analyzed in relation to the two paradigms of administrative constitutionalism: Rational-Instrumentalist and Deliberative-Constitutive. This thesis establishes that administrative constitutionalism discourse dominates the construction and contestation of environmental risk; the author further argues that administrative constitutionalism’s discursive dominance has an exclusionary impact on the people, ideas and interests represented in environmental risk regulation.enAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.Environmental lawElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2015-08-28Precautionary principleAdministrative constitutionalismPublic participationEnvironmental discourse