This book addresses potential avenues of criminal liability for public
health crisis management in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, under
national and international criminal law, especially for causing death
and bodily harm. The national case studies are geographically
representative and follow a common research grid. Each national case
study is prefaced by an overview of the detection and subsequent spread
of the pandemic in the country concerned. The relevant legal and
constitutional frameworks that governed the government and corporate
conduct in the face of the pandemic are also discussed, followed by the
consideration of forms of criminal liability. Government responses to
the COVID-19 pandemic differed vastly in terms of both the choice of
strategies adopted (herd immunity, test-and-trace, lockdown, etc) and
the quality and speed of government implementation of those strategies
and associated interventions. Both factors impacted the number of
infections and casualties. It is therefore appropriate to consider forms
of criminal liability for failure of individual members of government,
including specific public authorities, to act to the best of their
abilities, as timely as possible, and in accordance with expert advice.