Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T23:59:31.369Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Legal Preparedness for Obesity Prevention and Control: The Structural Framework and the Role of Government

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Extract

This paper discusses the relationship between obesity, law, and public health preparedness as well as the relevant roles of public health practitioners, policymakers, and lawyers. Each group believes they have a unique role in this relationship although there can be overlap and/or lack of clarity as to what that role may be.

The role of the lawyer in the public policy process is to identify relevant legal issues, to analyze them and give advice on the risks of taking a given action, and to communicate legal advice in a clear manner. Simply put, the lawyer’s role is to dive deep into the law surrounding the topic at hand and to offer advice regarding the permissible limits of policymakers’ options and the associated risks.

Type
JLME Supplement
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

U.S. Const. amend X.Google Scholar
Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 201–300 (2007).Google Scholar
Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, 23 U.S.C. §§ 101–166 (2005). See also National Center for Safe Routes to School, “Federal Funding,” available at http://www.saferoutesinfo.org/legislation_funding/federal.cfm (last visited February 25, 2009).Google Scholar
New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262, 311 (1932).Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Coordinating Center for Health Promotion, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, Atlanta, Georgia, 2006, available at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/report/ (last visited February 25, 2009).Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration, Traffic Safety Facts: Laws, “Motorcycle Helmet Use Law,”March 2005, at available http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/Traffic%20Injury%20Control/Articles/Associated%20Files/MotorcycleHelmet2005.pdf (last visited February 25, 2009).Google Scholar
Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905).Google Scholar
Farrelly, M. C. Davis, K. C. Haviland, L. Messeri, P., and Healton, C. G., “Evidence of a Dose-Response Relationship between ‘Truth’ Antismoking Ads and Youth Smoking Prevalence,” American Journal of Public Health, 95 no. 3 (2005): 425431;Google Scholar2003):+i35–i47.>Google Scholar
Arkansas Code of 1987 Annotated, A.C.A. § 20-7-135 (2008).Google Scholar
Hippocrates, as translated by Adams, F., “On Regimen in Acute Diseases,” available at http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/acutedis.mb.txt (last visited February 25, 2009). http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/acutedis.mb.txtGoogle Scholar