Category: Legal Literature
-
Judith Monroe, et al., “Legal Preparedness for Obesity Prevention and Control: A Framework for Action,” Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics (Summer 2009 Supplement)
This symposium article, co-authored by public health officials and a lawmaker, an attorney and a physician, presents the legal perspective on obesity prevention and control and focuses, for the most part, on public health laws and initiatives that have begun to address issues that affect obesity. The examples cited include laws regulating the nutritional value…
-
Adam Burrows, “Palette of Our Palates: A Brief History of Food Coloring and Its Regulation,” Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science & Food Safety, Vol. 8, 2009
Starting from the premise that consumer enjoyment of food is linked directly to its color, this article discusses the types of substances that have been used over the centuries to change the appearance of food products and how various governments have tried to regulate their use. The earliest food coloring regulations in the United States…
-
Jennifer Butler, “Cloned Animal Products in the Human Food Chain: FDA Should Protect American Consumers,” Food & Drug Law Journal, September 2009
Authored by a recent law school graduate, this article explores the science of animal cloning and the purported shortcomings in existing regulatory authorities to adequately protect the consuming public from potential cloned animal product risks. Noting that animal cloning technology relies, for the most part, on a process that does not create a “pure, one…
-
Richard Cupp, “Moving Beyond Animal Rights: A Legal/Contractualist Critique,” San Diego Law Review, 2009
Pepperdine University School of Law Professor Richard Cupp argues in this article that the better way to protect animal welfare is to focus on the human moral obligation to treat animals without cruelty. He contends that the current, rapidly expanding movement to endow animals with legal rights would be counterproductive if successful. Cupp reports that…
-
William McGeveran, “Disclosure, Endorsement and Identity in Social Marketing,” University of Illinois Law Review, 2009
University of Minnesota Law School Associate Professor William McGeveran discusses the problems posed by Internet marketing that collects and disseminates information about individual purchases as a form of product endorsement among the purchaser’s friends and acquaintances. The author describes how such marketing has already occurred on social networking platforms and the backlash it created. The…
-
Ashley Antler, “The Role of Litigation in Combating Obesity Among Poor Urban Minority Youth: A Critical Analysis of Pelman v. McDonald’s Corp.,” Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender, Winter 2009
This student-authored case note discusses the obesity-related class litigation filed in 2002 against McDonald’s Corp. involving named plaintiffs who are urban minority youths. The author contends that, while the proposed class definition includes a much broader population of New York residents, framing such litigation to connect obesity with socioeconomic status and race “could have been a…
-
Comment, “Product Liability and Food in Washington State: What Constitutes Manufacturing?,” Seattle University Law Review, Spring 2009
This student-authored article, prepared with the assistance of an attorney from the office of food litigator William Marler, discusses the inconsistent interpretations Washington courts have given to the definition of “manufacturer” in the state’s product liability statute. The issue is critical in foodborne illness cases because those food sellers not deemed to be manufacturers can…
-
Bruce Silverglade, “FDA Can Help Advance the Administration’s ‘Prevention’ Strategy,” Update, March-April 2009
In this publication of the Food and Drug Law Institute, Bruce Silverglade examines his belief that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should play a significant role in advancing President Obama’s “prevention” agenda. “The Administration should reinvigorate FDA’s nutrition mission and the agency should be instructed to develop and implement a series of initiatives that…