Laposata Elizabeth, Barnes Richard, Glantz Stanton
Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco.
Iowa Law Rev. 2012 Nov;98(1):1-68.
The American Law Institute ("ALI") is a prestigious and influential organization that creates treatises on the current state of the law, including "Restatements" of case law that guide judicial decisions and legislation. This paper uses previously secret tobacco industry documents made available as the result of state and federal litigation against the industry to describe how the tobacco companies, acting both indirectly through their trade organization, the Tobacco Institute, and directly, using influential lawyers, quietly influenced the ALI's writing of the Restatements. The tobacco industry's ease of access to the ALI calls into question the Institute's independence, the preparation of major policy documents such as the Restatements, as well as the Institute's ability to monitor and control conflicts of interest. The ALI's conflict of interest policies lag behind comparable organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and are insufficient to protect Institute projects from significant outside influence. Because of the undisclosed influence of the tobacco industry over the ALI, courts and legislatures should not apply the principles embodied in the Restatements in tort cases against the tobacco companies for injuries suffered from tobacco use. Until the ALI implements strong conflict of interest policies to ensure independence from private-interest manipulation, courts and legislatures should not rely on Institute reports and recommendations as neutral scholarly summaries of the law that should guide judicial and legislative decision-making.
美国法学会（“ALI”）是一个享有盛誉且颇具影响力的组织，它编撰有关当前法律状况的论文集，包括指导司法判决和立法的判例法“重述”。本文利用因针对烟草行业的州和联邦诉讼而得以公开的此前保密的烟草行业文件，描述烟草公司如何通过其行业组织烟草协会间接行事，并直接利用有影响力的律师，悄然影响了美国法学会对“重述”的编撰。烟草行业轻易就能接触到美国法学会，这让人质疑该学会的独立性、诸如“重述”这类主要政策文件的编写，以及该学会监测和控制利益冲突的能力。美国法学会的利益冲突政策落后于诸如美国国家科学院和医学研究所等类似组织，不足以保护学会项目免受重大外部影响。由于烟草行业对美国法学会存在未公开的影响，法院和立法机构在针对烟草公司的侵权案件中，不应适用“重述”中所体现的原则来判定因使用烟草而遭受的伤害。在该学会实施强有力的利益冲突政策以确保独立于私利操纵之前，法院和立法机构不应将学会的报告和建议作为应指导司法和立法决策的中立法律学术总结来依赖。
