The legal regulation of biosafety risk: a comparative legal study between Malaysia and Singapore

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Osman, NDB, 2018. The legal regulation of biosafety risk: a comparative legal study between Malaysia and Singapore. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention of Biological Diversity, that was adopted on the 29th January, 2000 and became into force on 11th September 2003, is the most important global agreement on biosafety that governs the transboundary movement of living modified organisms for the protection of human health and environment. Malaysia and Singapore were among the countries participated during the Protocol negotiations. In the end, Malaysia signed the Protocol on 24th May, 2000 and ratified it on 2nd December, 2003. However, Singapore ended up not being a party to it. This study analyses the different stances taken by both countries towards the Protocol, in the domestic biosafety laws implementations. This study, in summary, is a comparative legal study with the Singapore legal and institutional framework of biosafety laws.

This thesis examines Malaysian compliance towards the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety by analysing the current domestic legal and institutions' compliance with the Protocol requirements. The regulatory theory is used as the theoretical framework to investigate the relevancy and application of the various regulatory strategies which were the norms in the environmental protection, from the traditional command and control approach to the new governance such as smart regulation, reflexive and meta-regulation, licence model also civil and self-regulation, within the biosafety regulations both in Malaysia and Singapore.

Even though Singapore chose not to be a party of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the Protocol is used as a global model of biosafety governance as it outlines the most crucial issues of biosafety. Towards the end of the comparative study, the similarities and differences of legal and institutional biosafety laws in both countries are highlighted, with a view to suggest recommendations for improvement of Malaysian future biosafety governance.

The findings of the thesis revealed that Malaysia, like other developing countries, is protective of its biosafety laws, in order to balance the needs to generate income from the modern biotechnology research, development and commercialisation, and protecting its rich biodiversity. Singaporean biosafety and biosecurity laws, on the other hand, are more open and liberal, with less legal restrictions thus enabling Singapore becoming top 5 world producers of modern biotechnological products.

The study concludes that, as there are differences with Singaporean biosafety laws, the harmonisation of biosafety laws of both countries, being neighbours and main trading partners, are crucial, and the harmonisation of the biosafety laws of the Association of the South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is desirable.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Osman, N.D.B.
Date:	January 2018
Rights:	This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed to the owner(s) of the Intellectual Property Rights.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Law School
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	04 Jun 2019 10:33
Last Modified:	04 Jun 2019 10:33
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/36701