Chapter eleven
Lawyers & lobbyists
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Smoke Free Europe - A Forum for Networks
ow crucial will legal and legislative controls on tobacco be in
reducing the health toll from smoking? Despite the emphasis on
litigation in the US and western Europe, which only recently has
met with some success after decades of frustration, it is hard
to see how taking the tobacco industry to court will impact directly
on the worldwide epidemic of smoking. Perhaps its value lies more
in righting past wrongs and in tying the tobacco industry at national
levels to commitments to compensation and accountability. On the
other hand, the more that is achieved through the courts, the
less the industry can ride roughshod with impunity over individual
and public health concerns; and the more chinks in the industry's
armour that are prised open, the easier it will be for smoke-free
lobbies in different countries to view legal processes as instruments
to support health rights.
Legislation has a more clear-cut role, dealing with basic restrictions on tobacco industry practice and the explication of the links between tobacco and health issues for the public. But there are also limits to what can be achieved by legislation; it does not necessarily alter people's behaviour.
As we know from past experiences of prohibition, outright bans tend to backfire and end up having to be rescinded. As a result the lobbies for greater legal and legislative influence over tobacco pursue double-track strategies for individual responsibility and health awareness together with efforts for change at broader levels in society. That might seem self-evident, but given the scale of the problem of tobacco and health and the relatively small number of successes chalked up, the legal and legislative dimensions remain largely unchartered territory.