Book description
The significant media coverage recently given to issues such as the
international impacts of biofuel production policies, advances in
synthetic biology, and the ethical implications of research involving
embryonic stem cells, is indicative of the high-level of interest -
among policy-makers, academics and the public - in the biotechnology
revolution, its applications, impacts and control. There is also
significant interest in international regulatory processes as a form of
governance, and international regulation is a vital part of efforts to
manage the impacts of the biotechnology revolution, since many of these
are global in their nature. The book establishes the need for
international regulation of biotechnology, identifying the roles it
needs to play, and the issues it needs to cover. Having outlined the
importance of coherence to the effective functioning of international
regulatory sets, a model of coherent international regulation is
established, against which the biotechnology regulations can be
assessed. This book approaches the subject from an international
relations perspective but also draws from, and will contribute to,
literature in the fields of international law, global governance,
technological governance, and science-society relations. Catherine
joined the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation in November
2008. She was previously a research fellow in the Bradford Disarmament
Research Centre, Department of Peace Studies, Bradford University, where
she also completed her PhD in 2006. This focused on assessing coherence
among the international regulations relevant to control of the
biotechnology revolution. Catherine was also a visiting fellow at the
Brocher Foundation, Geneva in March/April 2008, and in 2005 worked as a
regulatory consultant for LGC Ltd on a European Commission project on
biotechnology regulation.
