Abstract

FAOOHINI NETO, Eugênio. The Relativity of Free Will and Liability of the Tobacco Industry -Deconstruction of a Myth. Brazilian Meditations on the United States v. Philip Morris et al. Case. Rev. Derecho Privado [online]. 2016, n.31, pp.189-225. ISSN 0123-4366.  https://doi.org/10.18601/01234366.n31.07.

This essay analyzes one of the main arguments put forward by the tobacco industry to support the absence of liability for damages caused by tobacco addiction: the free will of the smoker. Through the contribution of other sciences, it seeks to demonstrate how young people, targeted audience of marketing campaigns of the tobacco industry, were extremely vulnerable to tobacco industry maneuvers to attract them to their products. It also demonstrates the addictive effects of nicotine and how it practically neutralizes the ability of an adult deciding to stop the addiction. At the end, it sustains the relativization of the principle of free will.

Keywords : Tort liability; tobacco industry; free will.

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