Litigating Diets: Exploring the Role of Strategic Litigation in Preventing Obesity and Diet-Related Diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean

In the past few years, Latin American and Caribbean countries have witnessed an increased use of strategic litigation to either oppose or demand effective policy measures to promote healthier, sustainable food environments and prevent diet-related diseases. This use of litigation follows the implementation - or lack thereof - of laws intended to prevent growing overweight, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) throughout the region, where 58% of the population are already overweight or obese. In South America alone, NCDs are the estimated cause of at least 23% of all deaths.

Overweight, obesity and diet-related diseases are linked to an increased consumption of unhealthy food, which in turn is linked to aggressive advertising and marketing strategies of multinational food companies (MFCs). Such strategies accelerate the 'nutrition transition' from traditional to highly processed diets: virtually all growth in MFCs sales occurs in developing and low- and middle-income countries. As a result, the international community has, now for over a decade, called for action to halt the rise in obesity, and specifically for the adoption of nutrition labelling and food marketing legislation, among other measures.

In the context of this increasingly regulated environment, companies have used litigation alleging breaches of economic and constitutional rights, including property rights, the right to conduct a business, and the right to freedom of commercial expression. They have also invoked arguments anchored in international trade and investment law, specifically questioning the scientific basis of the measures concerned. At the same time, civil society has resorted to litigation to pressure governments to legislate in countries where regulation is inexistent or insufficient, and to oblige MFCs to comply with existing laws, normally in the name of public health and consumer protection, as well as children's rights.

Against this background, this project will explore how litigation is being used as a strategy to enable or prevent the development of policies intended to prevent obesity and other diet-related diseases. By studying strategic litigation involving the regulation of both nutrition labelling, and front-of-pack labelling more specifically, as well as the marketing of unhealthy food to children in Latin America and the Caribbean, this project will analyse the potential of litigation to affect, positively or negatively, laws, policies and practices, to shape public discourse, and to strengthen or weaken social movements in Latin American and Caribbean countries. It will also contribute to the emerging literature on law and NCD prevention, and the promotion of healthier, sustainable food environments more specifically.