Liability and Insurance after September 11: Embracing Risk Meets the Precautionary Principle by Tom Baker In the opening essay in Embracing Risk: The Changing Culture of Insurance and

tion from a dominant paradigm of spreading risks to a paradigm that involves embracing risk (Baker and Simon, 2002). The core idea behind this trend is the recognition that too much protection against loss produces too much loss. Not all risks should be spread. For their own and society’s good, individuals should embrace some risks. As we wrote: ‘‘As more of life is understood in terms of risk, taking risks is increasingly what one does with risk.’’ Embracing Risk closes with a wonderful essay by Francois Ewald that also posits a paradigm shift (Ewald, 2002). But this paradigm shift revolves around the precautionary principle, an evolving principle in international law that calls for hesitation in the face of uncertainty, avoiding risk – ‘‘zero risk’ ’ rather than ‘‘embracing risk’’. Ewald identifies popular support for this principle as among the most important reactions to the failure of the insurance state to protect citizens from risk, a charge that surely resonates in the wake o