kenneth.scot

As the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated in stark terms, one of the fundamental responsibilities of the state is the protection of public health. While governments are of course exercised by the threat posed by anthroponotic pathogens (like SARS-CoV-2 or HIV now are), they are equally concerned about pathogens transmitted from or between animals and plants (not least of all because human pandemic viruses can originate in the animal kingdom), as well as more broadly about anything which might endanger human, animal or plant life or health. For this reason, governments impose so-called sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures . SPS measures are regulatory measures designed to protect humans from pathogens and contaminants carried by animals and plants, and to protect the animals and plants themselves from such pathogens and contaminants. (For clarity, SPS measures do not concern the protection of humans from transmissible diseases within the human population, which may be achieved with...

Though it cannot yet be considered a long-term trend, there now appears to be sustained majority support in Scotland for independence from the rest of the United Kingdom. Notwithstanding the practical challenges of securing and then winning a new referendum on independence, Scotland could quickly find itself having to confront a range of hard policy decisions - such as whether and when to apply for membership of the European Union. The policy of Scotland’s current governing party, the SNP, is for Scotland to “be an independent member of the EU”, but, perhaps understandably, the party spells out little detail for now about whether rejoining the EU would be a day 1 priority, or on what terms it would seek to join. Finland holds the record for fastest EU accession process - the country applied for membership in March 1992, agreed the final text of its accession treaty just over two years later in April 1994, and joined in January 1995 - but it had also spent the previous two years, f...