News and updates

This Saturday, World Cancer Day, the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer turns 5. It’s been an amazing 5 years for us.

On 8 July 2016, the arbitral tribunal constituted to hear Philip Morris’ challenge to Uruguay’s tobacco packaging and labelling measures under a 1988 bilateral investment treaty between Switzerland and Uruguay handed down its Award, dismissing all of Philip Morris’ claims against Uruguay’s large graphic health warnings and its ‘single presentation requirement’, a requirement that tobacco manufacturers produce no more than one variant of a single brand family of cigarettes. We've written a paper explaining the key aspects of the Philip Morris v Uruguay award for countries looking to move ahead with WHO FCTC implementation - learn more in this blog.

Next week, high-level representatives of governments will assemble at UN Headquarters in New York for the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the World Drug Problem. In this guest post for ehospice's series on access to medications and UNGASS, Jonathan Liberman explains why the 2016 UNGASS could galvanise efforts to provide pain relief, palliative care and protection of dignity to millions of people around the world.

Jonathan Liberman, Director of the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer, outlines the research findings but says the fight against tobacco companies is far from over - for Australia still but also for other countries, particularly those who are less resourced but vulnerable to the social and health costs of tobacco in coming decades.

The relationship between health and trade is an increasingly prominent item on the global noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) agenda. Although adopted in the context of access to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria medicines, the Doha Declaration covers public health concerns more broadly. The Doha Declaration also applies to NCD prevention measures concerning intellectual property such as certain tobacco control laws.

In a guest blog for Edward Elgar, Jonathan Liberman explains that the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) carries great legal and political power for global health and development in the 21st century. Jonathan’s blog draws on his chapter The Power of the WHO FCTC: Understanding its Legal Status and Weight in the new book The Global Tobacco Epidemic and the Law, edited by Melbourne Law School Professors Andrew Mitchell and Tania Voon.

Last week, McCabe Centre Director Jonathan Liberman and Professors Mark Davison and Andrew Mitchell appeared before the Health Committee of the New Zealand Parliament, which is examining a Bill that would require tobacco products in New Zealand to be sold in plain packaging. They set out why they believe the Bill would not breach New Zealand’s obligations under WTO or international investment law. In this blog, they address some of the claims made by the tobacco industry in its submissions to the Committee.

What are the bases for developing and implementing laws for obesity prevention? Which levels of government are responsible? What is the role for public health evidence? And how can public health advocates respond to the efforts of opponents of legal approaches who simultaneously overplay gaps in evidence, the limits of legal authority, and technical barriers, with a view to delaying or stalling the use of law?