Introduction / Michael Bohlander, Gerhard Kemp and Mark Webster -- The emergence and global spread of SARS-CoV-2, and clinical and virological features / Thomas Christie Williams -- Brazil / Denis De Castro Halis -- England / Natalie Wortley and Birju Kotecha -- France / Caroline Fournet and Frédéric Rolland -- Germany / Michael Bohlander -- India / Suman Dash Bhattamishra -- Indonesia / Topo Santoso -- Iran / Mohammad M Hedayati-Kakhki -- The People's Republic of China / Andra Le Roux-Kemp -- South Africa / Gerhard Kemp -- Spain / Alejandro De Pablo -- Sweden / Dennis Martinsson -- Turkey / Murat Önok -- United States of America / Phillip Weiner and Dana Curhan -- COVID-19 and crimes against humanity /Gerhard Kemp.

"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"--