A legal principle of innovation? Need for an assessment against the principle of democracy

ABSTRACT In the EU sphere, the emergence in the political discourse of a potential innovation principle (‘IP’) has given rise to debates amongst scholars and stakeholders. The debate has mainly focused on the risk that an IP could pose to already-existing principles in EU law, such as the precautionary principle, and on the deemed deregulatory agenda of this industry-led initiative. As the IP is now making its way towards EU institutions and EU law, this article investigates the intuition that an IP could also encroach on democracy, namely the possibility for the sovereign people to make their own rules. Giving society a direction with respect to something as broad and ill-defined as ‘innovation’ indeed seems to fall within the core of politics. Based on a regulatory characterisation of the IP as a continuation of already-existing patterns, the article warns against possible further erosion of democracy.