Sydney Health Law

Category: Uncategorized

  • Lifetime achievement award for Professor Lawrence Gostin

    Professor Lawrence Gostin, the Linda and Timothy O’Neill Professor of Global Health Law, Georgetown University, and a longtime friend of Sydney Law School and the Centre for Health Governance, Law & Ethics, has been honoured by the American Public Health Association’s Law Section for “Lifetime Achievement in Public Health Law ”. Professor Gostin teaches a…

  • Dancing on Christopher Hitchens’ grave? The tricky business of talking about consequences

    A “pro-smoking blogger for the libertarian right”  accuses me of “dancing on Christopher Hitchens’ grave”. And other stuff. Christopher Snowdon is a Research Fellow for the UK-based Institute of Economic Affairs, a think tank that receives tobacco funding.  He is an opponent of plain tobacco packaging, keeper of the pure flame of libertarianism etc. My sin…

  • Bundaberg Rum and Dora the Explorer: the reality of alcohol advertising in Australia

    My 3-year old daughter loves Dora the Explorer.  She thinks that bossy little know-it-all, Dora, is really cool.  She used to be frightened of The Swiper, but that changed as she grew older. Last night, I sat her down in front of a laptop and let her watch an episode of Dora on YouTube.  Right…

  • A tiny illustration of what the tobacco industry is like

    Click on this link.  It’s a tiny illustration of what the tobacco industry is like.  It ought to be placed on the health curriculum of every school. Professor Stephen Leeder once wrote that public health is a “contest of raw political power” (S.R. Leeder, “Ethics in public health” Internal Medicine Journal 2004; 34:435-439).  Basically, it’s…

  • Mixed signals on e-cigarettes in NSW

    In a move likely to upset the pro-vaping brigade, NSW has substantially strengthened the regulation of e-cigarettes. The Public Health (Tobacco) Amendment (E-cigarettes) Act 2015  (NSW) [“E-cigarette Amendment”], applies to e-cigarettes and e-cigarette accessories, regardless of whether they contain nicotine.  It extends a number of existing tobacco controls to e-cigarettes. As first introduced, the government’s…

  • Why is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce playing patsy to the tobacco industry, and what does this mean for Australia?

    “From Ukraine to Uruguay, Moldova to the Philippines” – according to the New York Times – the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its affiliates “have become the hammer for the tobacco industry”.  This is revealed by “interviews with government ministers, lobbyists, lawmakers and public health groups in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States.” By…

  • Those pesky Dutch are at it again

    Those pesky Dutch are at it again.  Rather than slashing investments in renewable energy, or preparing for the imminent threat of global cooling, a court in the low country has ruled that the Dutch government has a legal duty to contribute to global efforts to mitigate climate disaster caused by excess greenhouse gas emissions. The…

  • Policing parenting: is the Family Court going to punish you for having a drink?

    Sascha Callaghan, University of Sydney News outlets have pounced on a Family Court “order” for parents of a six-year-old boy to not smoke around the child and to limit their alcohol consumption while caring for him. Readers commented that the case represents an unacceptable “intervention by the courts into the personal space of the individual”,…

  • World Health Organisation publishes new report on overweight, obesity, diabetes and the law

    Posted by Jenny Kaldor and Roger Magnusson This is the view when you look out the front gates of the World Health Organisation’s regional headquarters in Manila. A few blocks away, in the processed food aisles of the supermarket, parents are encouraged to purchase “nutrition power for kids”. The Western Pacific Region, which includes Australia,…

  • Does Coca Cola have a role in delivering Pacific aid?

    Posted by Roger Magnusson and Alexandra Jones The Foreign Minister, The Hon. Julie Bishop MP has announced that Australia will partner with companies like Coca-Cola to distribute essential medicines to Pacific Island recipients of Australian aid. The Minister is right about one thing: tobacco and fizzy drink companies have strong distribution networks that reach into…

  • Welcome to Sydney Health Law

    Welcome to Sydney Health Law, the blog of the Centre for Health Governance, Law and Ethics (CHGLE) at Sydney Law School, the University of Sydney. We provide information on the latest developments and events in health law, ethics and governance, focusing both nationally and globally. The blog’s main contributors are academic staff affiliated with the Centre, who…