This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com.
The significant media coverage recently given to issues such as the international impacts of biofuel production policies, advances in synthetic biology, and the ethical implications of research involving embryonic stem cells, is indicative of the high-level of interest - among policy-makers, academics and the public - in the biotechnology revolution, its applications, impacts and control. There is also significant interest in international regulatory processes as a form of governance, and international regulation is a vital part of efforts to manage the impacts of the biotechnology revolution, since many of these are global in their nature.