Research
You will find a complete range of our peer-reviewed monographs, multi-authored and edited works, including original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
This chapter concludes, bringing together the key themes from the book and reflecting on the most effective means for governments to prepare in designing NCD prevention measures and how best to defend them in the face of pressure from corporate actors or other governments.
This chapter examines the international investment law (IIL) regime and its impact on governments seeking to regulate to prevent NCDs. After briefly introducing the IIL regime and how it interacts with public health, the chapter considers the prohibition of discrimination, the obligation to accord fair and equitable treatment to foreign investors, and protections against regulatory expropriation.
This chapter introduces the international trade law system and considers the law and institutions of the multilateral trade system at the WTO and how it accommodates the protection of public health, before introducing bilateral and regional trade agreements. It also introduces discussions on the extent to which international trade law may constrain the regulatory autonomy of states to protect public health and prevent NCDs more specifically.
This chapter introduces the book. After summarizing the health challenge at stake – the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), highlighting the implications of tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food consumption in the growing prevalence of NCDs – it focuses on the legal strategies industry actors, and primarily large multinational corporations, have used to avoid government regulation, to limit its scope and therefore its impact on their operations, or to delay its implementation. It then introduces the importance of understanding international trade and investment law to effectively counter the opposition that industry actors have mounted – or could mount – against the adoption and implementation of government-led measures regulating industry actors associated with ill health, particularly those involved in the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food. The chapter then identifies other key actors involved when considering the trade/investment and health nexus, before setting out the approach taken in the remaining chapters, setting the scene for the remaining analysis and aims in the book.
This chapter examines the fourth of the core principles discussed in this book: consistency. It examines the ways in which trade rules encourage governments to reduce the difference in their regulatory approaches by drawing on international standards. It identifies what standards are, how they become relevant through international trade law, and the benefits in using them from an NCD prevention perspective. It focuses on the ways in which the TBT Agreement incentivizes governments to use standards when they regulate to encourage consistency, how ‘relevant international standards’ are identified, and the impact of FTAs.
This chapter examines the third of the core principles in the book: necessity. It examines how trade law requires that when governments act for public policy purposes, they should do so in a targeted manner, so that such activity is designed to achieve the specific objectives it pursues while also considering its impact on other interests. It also examines how governments are required to develop laws and regulations in the light of relevant evidence.
This chapter examines the second of the core principles discussed in this book: non-discrimination. It examines the two principal representations of non-discrimination in international trade law: the prohibition of discriminating between products coming from different WTO Members (‘MFN treatment’) and the prohibition of discrimination between domestic and imported products (‘national treatment’).
This chapter examines the first of the core principles in the book: predictability, the way in which the rules of the trade regime seek to reduce costs for traders by reducing the risk of change in terms of trade. In this chapter, we explore how predictability plays a role across multiple policy instruments, including tariffs, and notification and consultation requirements, and in relation to regulatory cooperation under free-trade agreements.
This chapter examines the role of intellectual property obligations in relation to non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention. It examines the applicable general provisions and basic principles under the TRIPS Agreement, identifying standards concerning the availability, scope and use of specific rights, including trademarks, as they relate to the prevention of NCDs.
Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
Although non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancers, diabetes, and heart diseases are preventable, they have risen dramatically over the last 30 years. This is in part due to increased international trade and foreign direct investment in the tobacco, alcohol and food industries.
As governments attempt to regulate these industries, this book raises important and timely questions about the relationship between public health and international trade and investment law.
Providing a clear and succinct analysis of the relevant trade and investment regimes and the obligations they impose, this book identifies the key principles that must be considered when formulating and implementing NCD prevention strategies that are both effective and able to withstand legal challenges.
