W.A. Bogart is the published author/editor of 8 books including Permit but Discourage: Regulating Excessive Consumption (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) and Regulating Obesity?: Government, Society, and Questions of Public Health (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
He has just published his latest book on the decriminalization of recreational drugs, Off the Street: Legalizing Drugs (A J. Patrick Boyer Book, 2016).
Published Books
Reviews and Awards
Bogart‘s book is a comprehensive road map to ending the war on drugs, presented with a welcome degree of intelligence and eloquence in a public debate more commonly dominated by emotion and polarized viewpoints.
Pulling no punches, this is an unvarnished look at illegal drug use and what we should be doing about it. Its recommendations are hard-hitting and thought-provoking. They deserve a close look. Governments, take note.
Bill Bogart … makes his case in a manner that is clear and compelling.… If we’re to make informed decisions after the failed war on drugs, this eye-opening appeal for a change in public policy is for every concerned citizen’s bedside table.
The book should be a must-read for legislators, law enforcement personnel, and law students in both Canada and the U.S. Indeed, it is so straight forward and well written that it will also be educational for interested laypersons.
Off the Street … moves beyond political platitudes and succeeds in addressing the tough issues that are involved … [with] legalizing drugs and the challenges that lie ahead as we head down this path.
Regulating Obesity?
Government, Society, and Questions of Health
W.A. Bogart
Oxford University Press (December 5, 2013)
Reviews and Awards
Obesity might not have a particularly obvious relationship with the law, but University of Windsor law professor Bill Bogart is making a compelling case that regulation has a role to play in addressing the issue in a more humane manner.
A worthy successor to the author’s 2010 monograph, Permit But Discourage: Regulating Excessive Consumption. Bogart, argues that laws aimed at promoting healthier lifestyles by encouraging weight loss have mostly failed. Instead of preventing obesity, these laws have merely fueled prejudice against fat people.
This book should be lauded for doing what a lot of sociolegal and policy scholars do not do - bridge the gap between the fields of law and policy... I also encourage all law and policy scholars to consider reading it because the author explores the interplay of law, policy, and society in new, creative, and innovative ways.
Bogart achieves what he set out to do - showing law to be ‘a powerful but limited tool for addressing behaviour’ that achieves only some of what people expect of it. He strips away the false simplicity of obesity problem, and reveals the complexity that lies beneath.
Permit But Discourage
Regulating Excessive Consumption
W.A. Bogart
Oxford University Press (November 3, 2010)
Reviews and Awards
Permit But Discourage is an engagingly written examination of a hugely important question: How can laws best be used to protect individuals and societies against out-of-control consumption of such things as alcohol, junk foods, sodas, and other unhealthy indulgences, without doing more harm than good? The book clearly and compellingly argues for a mix of laws that permit consumption but discourage excesses, and for finding that mix through trial and error. This fascinating book is a must read for anyone who cares about promoting health as well as human rights in a market-driven economy.
W.A. Bogart provides a masterful treatment of an extremely complex issue: What role can law play in limiting or discouraging rather than forbidding behavior? How can law regulate indulgences? Can it help control gambling and drug abuse, what a person eats, how much a person drinks or recreates, discourage activities such as smoking? Using the concept of normativity as a central framing device to account for decisions to consume, Bogart succeeds in providing new insights on the limits of the law as a mechanism of control. Permit But Discourage: Regulating Excessive Consumption is an important book for anyone concerned about what law can and cannot do.
Good Government? Good Citizens?: Courts, Politics, and Markets in a Changing Canada
(University of British Columbia Press, Law and Society Series, 2005)
Consequences: The Impact of Law and its Complexity
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002)
Courts and Country: The Limits of Litigation and the Social and Political Life of Canada
(Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1994)
Co-authored and Co-edited Books
Access to Justice for a New Century: The Way Forward
(Toronto: Law Society of Upper Canada/Irwin Law, 2005)
The Civil Litigation Process, 5th ed
(Toronto: Emond-Montgomery, 1999)
Articles
W.A. Bogart is the author of over thirty articles dealing with the role of courts, access to justice, the impact of litigation, and empirical research on legal policy, and has lectured and delivered papers throughout North America and Europe.
Huffington Post
How Do We Tell Kids Who Vape It's Just as Dumb as Smoking? — 05/11/2015
Will We Ever End Smoking? — 04/20/2015
Should Healthy Foods Be Marketed to Kids? — 03/24/2015
The U.S. Is No Model on Marketing Food to Kids — 03/10/2015
Should We Reward People for Healthy Living? — 02/17/2015
To Make Canadians Healthier We Need the Law — 02/01/2015
There Is More to Obesity Than 'Calories In, Calories Out' — 01/26/2015
The Danger of Calling Obesity a Disability — 01/06/2015
Can Pollution Cause Obesity? — 12/21/2014
Why Food Labelling Won't Lead to Sustainable Weight Loss for the Obese — 12/03/2014
Why Policies Don't Help Smokers Quit — 11/19/2014
"The Shape We're In": Is the Sun Setting on 'Big Food's' Glory Days? — 11/04/2014
Canadians Can Be Malnourished and Obese at the Same Time — 10/29/2014
Pushing Back Against Fat-Shaming Is In Fashion — 10/15/2014
Goodbye Sugary Cereals and Soft Drinks. Canada's Getting Healthier — 09/26/2014
Why Mexico's Ban on Advertising Food to Kids Might Not Work — 09/15/2014
How The 'Nudge' Method Could Help You Quit Smoking — 08/22/2014
Make Way for the New "Virtuous" Fast Food — 08/07/2014
How the Government Can Make Kids' Sports More Affordable — 07/22/2014
Are Camps That Ban Comments About Appearance Really Addressing the Problem? — 07/03/2014
Why Pop May Become the New Tobacco — 06/23/2014
Don't Believe the Magical Claims of That New Weight Loss Program — 06/10/2014
Get Your Kids Away From the TV and Outside To Play — 05/26/2014
This Report on Obesity Has Good Points and Bad Conclusions — 05/12/2014
Why Body Mass Index Doesn't Measure Up — 04/25/2014
'Thinner and Cuter' Women Get Better Jobs and Higher Pay — 04/14/2014
Should We Assume Overweight People Are Lazy or Excessive? — 03/16/2014
Eating Healthy? CRC's Hopeful Community Initiative — 02/04/2014
Will We Ever Eat Healthy? — 12/20/2013
Why Most Obese Individuals Who Shed Pounds Gain Them All Back -- And More — 11/06/2013
Oxford University Press Blog
The ups and downs of weight loss — 11/10/2014
Literary Review of Canada
This Dreadful Vice — June 2009