Abstract
This chapter gives a final conclusion on the role historians have played in tobacco litigation based on qualitative and quantitative inquiries the book has presented in previous chapters. Although experts for the defence are not following professional historical ethics, experts for the plaintiff are showing that litigation-driven history can produce solid historical research.
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Notes
- 1.
Proctor, Robert. 2004. Should Medical Historians Be Working for the Tobacco Industry? The Lancet 363, 1174.
- 2.
Proctor, Robert. 2006. ‘Everyone Knew But No One Had Proof’: Tobacco Industry Use of Medical History Expertise in US courts, 1990–2002. Tobacco Control 15, 122.
- 3.
Proctor, Robert. 2008. Plaintiffs’ Motion for Reconsideration of Order Overruling Objections to Subpoena and for Protective Order Concerning Unpublished Manuscript. George Mason University’s History News Network, October 12. http://hnn.us/articles/118209.html. Accessed 31 Oct 2014.
- 4.
Proctor, Robert. 2012. Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 460–463.
- 5.
See Appendix I list for the expert witness profiles and Appendix II for an overview, cfr. infra.
- 6.
See Appendix III, cfr. infra.
- 7.
As far as I have found, it is very probable that the tobacco industry has recruited even more historians in American Universities.
- 8.
I discussed specialized lawyers for tobacco as repeat players earlier. See Part II, Sect. 7.3.2. Recruitment of the Expert Witness, cfr. supra.
- 9.
See Expert Witness Profile No. 41, Robert Proctor; Expert Witness Profile No. 26, Louis Kyriakoudes; Expert Witness Profile No. 44 Michael Schaller; Expert Witness Profile No. 23 Joan Hoff; Expert Witness Profile No. 36 Robert Norrell; Expert Witness Profile No. 31 James Kirby Martin; Expert Witness Profile No. 48 William Stueck; Expert Witness Profile No. 16 Lacy Ford; Expert Witness Profile No. 30, Kenneth Ludmerer. See also Appendix II, Table 4. Number of Cases, cfr. infra.
- 10.
See Part III, Sect. 15.6. The Tobacco Companies v. Robert Proctor, cfr. supra.
- 11.
For the different waves in tobacco litigation see: Part III, Chap. 13: Tobacco Litigation, cfr. supra. See Appendix II, Table 2. Active in In re: Engle Progeny Cases, cfr. infra.
- 12.
See Appendix II, cfr. infra. & See Expert Witness Profile No. 6, John Burnham.
- 13.
Every single historian has his or her own expert witness profile, which lists his or her name, website, degree, focus of research, most important publications, number of cases, and a shortlist of those cases, detailing the name of the case, the year and the manner of involvement by the historian. Furthermore, the profile offers a short description of the historian and his or her work, and if available statements he or she has made about their work in tobacco litigation as an expert judicial witness. I hope the website may add to further debate on the involvement of historians in tobacco litigation. See all the witness profiles online at http://www.thejudgeandthehistorian.ugent.be. Accessed 31 Oct 2014. Disclosure: website made and maintained by the author. All experts involved have been contacted and have been provided with their expert witness profile.
- 14.
Brandt makes a similar argument in his book. Brandt, Allan. 2007. The Cigarette Century. The Rise, Fall and Deadly Persistence of a Product that Defined America. New York: Basic Books, 15.
- 15.
Article is in press, see http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/armitage/files/rld_annales_revised_0.pdf. Accessed 31 Oct 2014.
- 16.
- 17.
Malone, Ruth. 2009. Standing With Those Who Seek Justice. Tobacco Control 18, 337. For example, the son of Rose Cipollone who had succumbed to lung cancer because of her addiction to smoking; Thomas Cipollone continued litigation against the tobacco industry all the way to the US Supreme Court even after his father, Antonio Cipollone, had also died.
Bibliography
Brandt, Allan. 2007. The cigarette century: The rise, fall and deadly persistence of a product that defined America. New York: Basic Books.
Malone, Ruth. 2009. Standing with those who seek justice. Tobacco Control 18: 337.
Proctor, Robert. 2004. Should medical historians be working for the tobacco industry? The Lancet 363: 1174–1175.
Proctor, Robert. 2006. ‘Everyone knew but no one had proof’: Tobacco industry use of medical history expertise in US courts, 1990–2002. Tobacco Control 15: 117–125.
Proctor, Robert. 2008. Plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration of order overruling objections to subpoena and for protective order concerning unpublished manuscript. George Mason University’s History News Network, October 12.
Proctor, Robert. 2012. Golden holocaust: Origins of the cigarette catastrophe and the case for abolition. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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Delafontaine, R. (2015). Final Conclusion on the Involvement of Historians in Tobacco Litigation. In: Historians as Expert Judicial Witnesses in Tobacco Litigation. Studies in the History of Law and Justice, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14292-0_17
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