Introduction to Volume V

We are pleased to publish Volume V of the Journal of Biosecurity, Biosafety and Biodefense Law. This volume continues our journal’s tradition of addressing emerging and important issues within the fields of biosecurity, biosafety, and biodefense law, from a practical as well as a theoretical perspective. The lead article of Volume V, Legislations on Biosecurity: Compliance Challenges for Malaysian Scientists by T.S. Saraswathy Subramaniam, focuses on the biosecurity compliance challenges currently faced by laboratories in Malaysia. The remaining articles selected for Volume V address five subjectmatter areas. The first group of articles addresses the various global approaches to quarantine of disease-harboring individuals. The second group of articles discusses the relationship between federalism and biosecurity law. The third group of articles engages in a comparative analysis of the various legal approaches to biosecurity. The fourth group of articles addresses the processes of attribution and justice (or lack thereof) relating to the use of bioweapons. Finally, the fifth group of articles discusses the application of domestic and foreign biosecurity laws to “mass gathering” situations. This marks the first special section for focus in the Journal, and we are pleased to provide this forum for the first published scholarship concerning the scope of interests of the World Health Organization initiative on mass gatherings. The first section provides contextual and historical information regarding the use of quarantine law to prevent the spread of infectious disease. First, Nadia Haghighatian reviews the historical use of quarantine and examines some of its associated limitations in her article One Hundred Years of Solitude: The Uses and Limitations of Quarantine As a Tool for Maintaining Global Public Health Since Typhoid Mary. Subsequently, Bradley Lewis discusses pre-emptive strategies for the prevention and control of XDR-TB in “An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Quarantine”: National and International Quarantine Laws vs Prevention and Control Measures as Applied to XDR-TB.