Abstract
This paper analyses the suitability of the Spanish legal criminal system to deal with the hypothetical case in which a person subjected to a biosecurity isolation regime (that is, to “quarantine” as he is a carrier of a serious illness) decides to ignore the advice of the health authorities (or, if applicable, the Judge), escaping from the hospital facilities where he is deprived of his liberty (we will begin describing two similar and real examples of this situation, one of them occurred in the African context, and the other one in Spain). In addition to the identification and analysis of rights or interests at stake (life, individual health, public health, freedom of movement, etc.), we propose the creation of a criminal offense to overcome the legislative loophole that we will identify which is also present in the criminal systems of most European and Latin American countries.
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- 1.
To this we can add that this behaviour also put in danger of contagion the inhabitants of the countries with which Nigeria maintains terrestrial or air connections.
- 2.
It should also be pointed out that criminal protection of the aforementioned legal right is merely a reflection of the constitutional tutelage that has been established for this purpose (Article 43.2 EC states that “It is the responsibility of the public authorities to organize and protect Public health through preventive measures and the necessary services. The law shall establish the rights and duties of all concerned”).
- 3.
All of them incorporated in Chapter III of Title XVII of Book II of the PC.
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Acknowledgments
Project framework “Bioterrorism and Biosafety: Bases for the structuring of new legal-criminal instruments to face biological threats” [www.bioterr.eu], Ref. DER2014-56634- JIN, funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and developed at the University of the Basque Country UPV / EHU. This project is led by Dr. Emilio José Armaza-Armaza (Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU – Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Deusto) and involved the participation of Dr. Carlos Maria Romeo-Casabona (Professor of Criminal Law at the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU), Dr. Fernando Guanarteme Sanchez-Lazaro (Accredited Professor of Criminal Law at the University of La Laguna), Dr. Maria Angeles Cuadrado-Ruiz (Full Professor of Criminal Law of the University of Granada) and Dr. Fatima Flores-Mendoza (Professor of Criminal Law at the University of La Laguna).
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Armaza-Armaza, E.J. (2019). Criminal Protection of Public Health in the Field of Biological Emergencies: The Case of the Spanish Legal System. In: O'Mathúna, D., de Miguel Beriain, I. (eds) Ethics and Law for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear & Explosive Crises. The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11977-5_16
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