Abstract
The rapid rise in rates of overweight and obesity among adults and children in Australia and New Zealand has intensified debate about the most effective policies for obesity prevention. Law has much to contribute to this policy discussion, although its role is often misunderstood. The articles in this symposium follow on from a conference hosted in September 2006 by the Centre for Health Governance, Law & Ethics in the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, titled: Obesity: should there be a law against it? In different ways, these articles provide a variety of perspectives on regulatory responses to obesity, including theoretical justifications for a legal approach, conceptual models that assist in making sense of law's role, as well as specific legal strategies for obesity prevention in various settings.
Highlights
What can law do about obesity? Law's role in preventing and reversing weight gain at the population level has become a serious topic of discussion among public health lawyers and policy-makers
In the United States, there has been tremendous interest in the extent to which food and beverage companies could be vulnerable to tobacco-style lawsuits brought by obese claimants for the health effects of obesity and chronic diseases [1,2,3,4,5]
Legislatures, at least in the United States, have not stood still, and recent reviews demonstrate the wide range of laws that have already been introduced as part of obesity prevention efforts [11,12,13]
Summary
3. Kersh R, Morone J: Obesity, Courts and the New Politics of Public Health. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 2005, 30:839-868. 4. Frank T: A Taxonomy of Obesity Litigation. University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review 2006, 28:427-441
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