Much of tobacco policymaking has been driven by economic and political forces. Professors LeBel and Ausness offer an alternative approach to tobacco policymaking that places justice concerns at the center of the analysis. Their article presents a detailed critique of a significant recent work by Professors Hanson and Logue advocating extensive tobacco industry liability on economic efficiency grounds. Asserting that a “fresh start” is necessary, LeBel and Ausness identify the interests at play in the tobacco policy arena. Instead of an ambiguous interest balancing approach, they construct a policy model that grounds those interests in justice considerations, demonstrating how claims derived from those considerations can be woven into a comprehensive and principled tobacco policy that shifts more of the costs of smoking to the tobacco industry without allowing smokers to recover damages for the harm they have suffered
