But after sitting through many evil microbe engineering sessions, it dawned on me that even an evil scientist interested in bioterrorism might need a lawyer. So let me take you, therefore, with Dr. Evil as he visits the law offices of Rumpole, the Malevolent. He visits the law offices of Rumpole, the Malevolent, to find out what kind of legal system would be the most vulnerable to a bioterrorist attack. After commiserating with Dr. Evil about how bioterrorists and lawyers are misunderstood by society, Rumpole's advice might go something like this. Your ideal legal target for a bioweapons attack is a country that has a fragmented legal system, in that relevant legal powers to respond to a public health emergency are divided among actors at the national and local levels.
Federalism is, for instance, a fragmented legal system.
A federal legal system would be an attractive target because the overlapping competencies of national and local actors will create conflicts about who's in charge of a public health emergency caused by a bioweapon. While national and local authorities struggle to figure out who is in control, the epidemic spreads to other local areas, and the who's in charge comedy of errors begins all over again. In addition, a federal legal structure will create cumbersome decisionmaking processes in which national and local government entities and personnel need to participate. Second, your ideal legal target would be a federal system that has placed public health powers predominantly at the local level. If local and state governments possess the bulk of public health powers, legally and constitutionally, then the fragmentation of a federal system is exacerbated in the context of a public health emergency, because the main responsibility for protecting public health will be at the local and state level, not the national level.