Using a legal and regulatory framework to identify and evaluate priorities for cancer prevention

SummaryThis paper presents a framework for identifying legal and regulatory interventions for the prevention of risk factors for cancer at the population level. The framework has wider application for behavioural risk factors for other non-communicable diseases. It is based on four different types of assessment: identifying the determinants of cancer and key settings for interventions; reviewing the key strategies that law can deploy; considering the most appropriate level for interventions within federal systems; and considering the role of law within a broader set of public health responses that includes voluntary standards, co-regulation, outcome-based regulation and more technical, prescriptive controls. The paper argues that law is an important tool for preventing the burden of disease from cancer. It then uses the framework to evaluate the current status of regulatory strategies for cancer prevention and to identify law reform priorities, taking Australia as a case study. The paper illustrates the application of the model at the country level by making extensive use of Australian evidence and published research. However, the methodology presented, the regulatory issues discussed, the evidence cited and the law reform priorities identified will be relevant to other countries with a substantial burden from cancer and non-communicable diseases.