Regulating Obesity? Government, Society, and Questions of Health

Regulating Obesity?: Government, Society, and Questions of Health explores the effectiveness of legal interventions aimed at promoting healthier lifestyles. In this book, W.A. Bogart suggests that the government's emphasis on encouraging weight loss and preventing excess weight gain have largely failed to resolve obesity and have instead fueled prejudice against overweight people. He suggests that a major challenge lies in shifting norms away from stigmatization of the obese and towards more nutritious and healthy lifestyle habits in addition to the acceptance of bodies in all shapes and sizes.

Part of this challenge lies in the complex effects of law and its relationship with norms, including the unintended consequences of regulation. Regulating Obesity? begins by arguing for the protection of the overweight and obese from discrimination through human rights laws. It then examines three other areas of interventions--marketing, fiscal policy, and physical activity--and how these interventions operate within the context of "health equity." Professor Bogart evaluates the effectiveness of legal regulation in addressing obesity and concludes that a healthier population is more important than a thinner population. Regulating Obesity? is the first book to engage in the comprehensive evaluation of this role for law and the implications of society's fascination with regulating consumption.

W. A. Bogart is a University Professor and Professor of Law at the University of Windsor. He received his B.A. and LL.B. from the University of Toronto and his LL.M. from Harvard University, and is the author of several books, including, most recently, Permit But Discourage: Regulating Excessive Consumption (Oxford University Press, 2011). Professor Bogart was a Virtual Scholar in Residence for the Law Commission of Canada (2002-03) and is a frequent consultant to government and other public bodies regarding legal policy.