Broken Scales: Obesity and Justice in America

163 Pages Posted: 17 Oct 2006

See all articles by Jon D. Hanson

Jon D. Hanson

Harvard Law School

Adam Benforado

Drexel University Kline School of Law

David G. Yosifon

Santa Clara University - School of Law

Abstract

This Article provides a broad assessment of the American obesity epidemic from the perspective of "critical realism," an innovative approach to legal analysis developed by the authors in previous articles. The article is focused on exploring the vast divergence between common sense views of the sources of obesity - which typically attribute the phenomena to the individual, private choices of consumers - and the very different conception of the sources of obesity that emerges from the social sciences, which are typically much more focused on environmental influences on consumption behavior. The article endeavors to develop an approach to the legal analysis of obesity that is responsive to the social scientific findings, rather than merely patronizing to the common sense view. Further, the Article examines the ways in which the food industry has exercised powerful influence, often in unseen ways, over consumer behavior in the food market, even as the industry has evaded responsibility for the ensuing obesity epidemic by promoting to regulators, as well as to consumers themselves, the view that consumer behavior in the food market reflects the preference driven choices of individual consumers, which the industry claims merely to satisfy.

Suggested Citation

Hanson, Jon D. and Benforado, Adam and Yosifon, David G., Broken Scales: Obesity and Justice in America. Emory Law Journal, Vol. 53, p. 1645, 2004, Santa Clara Univ. Legal Studies Research Paper No. 06-16, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=938001

Jon D. Hanson (Contact Author)

Harvard Law School ( email )

1563 Massachusetts
Griswold 403
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
607-496-5207 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/facdir.php?id=25

Adam Benforado

Drexel University Kline School of Law ( email )

3320 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

David G. Yosifon

Santa Clara University - School of Law ( email )

500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
United States

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