About ESNLT

Conact information

ESNLT Chair: Prof. Brigit Toebes
ESNLT Coordinator: Michelle Bruijn, LLM
For more information and general matters contact esnlt@rug.nl

Legal scholarship in Europe

International, regional, and domestic law, are important for shaping tobacco control policies. Legal scholarship in the field of tobacco control, however, is diffuse and/or underdeveloped, in particular in Europe. Sometimes it is unclear across the board who is working on what related issues from which sub discipline in law, and the work available is not always visible, and/or accessible to the field of policy and practice. This gap or diffusion becomes even more visible in comparison to the legal academic work produced in the United States or Australia. The lack of such scholarship in Europe is problematic for various reasons: law is a wide and complex field of scholarship, context is important for the implementation of law, and relying on the law as indicator in non-legal studies would overly simplify the normative aspects of tobacco control laws, policies, and practice.

Positioning and structure of the ESNLT

In order to bridge the gap in law and tobacco-related knowledge in Europe, (the) Global Health Law Groningen Research Centre (GHLG) of the Department of International Law of the University of Groningen has established the ESNLT. The ESNLT has been established by Prof. Brigit Toebes and Dr. Marie Elske Gispen in 2016 as part of the research project The rights of children to a tobacco free environment (2016-2019, funded by the Dutch Cancer Society). The Network has been continued by Prof. Brigit Toebes, Dr. Katerina Tsampi, and Michelle Bruijn as part of the research project Novel Smoke-free Policies (2019-2022, funded by the Dutch Lung Foundation, Duth Heart Foundation, Dutch Cancer Society, Dutch Thrombosis Foundation, and the Dutch Diabetes Foundation).

The ESNLT is an academic network existing primarily of and for legal scholars with a clear outreach to policy and practice. The Dutch Cancer Society, Kom op tegen Kanker, Norwegian Cancer Society, ASH Action on Smoking & Health and the Belgian Alliance for a Smoke Free Society act as key partners providing practical input and helping facilitate knowledge utilisation and valorisation of academic work. GHLG will be the leading party of the network and hosts its secretariat. Prof. Brigit Toebes will act as the ESNLT-chair. ESNLT activities are organised with financial support from the Dutch Cancer Society.

Objectives and strategy

The ESNLT is built on a threefold objective to increase the visibility of and collaboration within legal scholarship in the field of tobacco control in Europe. The overview below lists the specific objectives and corresponding action to achieve these aims.