Revised version of a paper presented to the 2nd Transatlantic Dialogue on “The Reality of Precaution: Comparing Approaches to Risk and Regulation” (Warrenton/VA, 2002) and the Conference on “Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change: Knowledge for the Sustainability Transition” (Berlin, 2002). The paper describes innovative initiatives to establish civil society’s ‘right to know’, by mandatory disclosure of government-held information (from the 1966 U.S. Freedom of Information Act to the 1998 UNECE Aarhus Convention) and of industry-held environmental risk data (through the worldwide spread of PRTRs, and through court-enforced access to ‘privileged’ documentation). The paper also highlights continuing transparency deficits with regard to risk-sensitive information of common concern.
