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Bioviolence: Preventing Biological Terror and Crime.

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Bioviolence: Preventing Biological Terror and Crime. New York: Cambridge University Press xxviii +362 pages. ISBN 9780521883252, $80.00 cloth. ISBN 9780521709699, $28.99 paper. Barry Kellman. 2006.

In Bioviolence: Preventing Biological Terror and Crime, internationally recognized legal scholar Barry Kellman (DePaul University College of Law) puts forth a proposal for a global mechanism addressing the need for "humanity-wide governance institutions" to deal with the potential threat of biological weapons. Kellman focuses particularly on biotechnology-enabled bioweapons in the bands of nonstate actors--weapons that he asserts "uniquely serve terrorist interests." Kellman asks a timely question relevant to international security scholars that extend beyond bioterrorism: "How can international law address the intrinsic security threats posed by high science, especially the life sciences?" (p. 87) He presents an elaboration of the challenges of biological weapons proliferation, bioterrorism, and potential malfeasant appropriation of biotechnology with some ideas on how to address those challenges through international criminal law.

The underlying theory Kellman posits is that advances in the biological science combined with potential malfeasant use by nonstate actors offer a means by Which nonstate actors...

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