A Fire in the Global Village: Teaching Ethical Reasoning and Stakeholder Interests Utilizing Tobacco

• Author: Lucien J. Dhooge
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1722.2011.01100.x
• Date: 01 March 2012
• Published date: 01 March 2012

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 29, Issue 1, 95–125, Winter/Spring 2012

A Fire in the Global Village: Teaching

Ethical Reasoning and Stakeholder

Interests Utilizing Tobacco

Lucien J. Dhooge*

[T]is a plague, a mischief, a violent purger of goods, lands, health; hellish, devilish

and damned tobacco, the ruin and overthrow of body and soul.1

I. Introduction

Tobacco has been an agricultural staple from the time of the f‌irst recorded

European encounter with the plant in the f‌ifteenth century.2The pervasive

nature of its cultivation and consumption has made tobacco one of the

most prof‌itable crops in world agricultural history.3World production is

estimated at thirteen billion pounds annually, originating in more than one

hundred countries.4This production has f‌lourished, in part, due to the

demand for cigarettes, the leading form of tobacco consumed in the global

marketplace. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that

∗Sue and John Staton Professor of Law,College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology.

1Richard Burton,The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), quoted in Philip J. Hilts,Smoke-

screen 185 (1996).

2See Daniel J. Boorstein,The Discoverers 237–38 (1983) (describing Christopher Columbus’

introduction to tobacco by the Taino Indians in Cuba in October 1492).

3World Health Organization,Tobacco Atlas 46 (2002). The World Health Organization

(WHO) estimates the value of the global tobacco crop to exceed U.S. $20 billion annually. Id.

All monetary references in this case are to U.S. dollars.

4Jasper Womach,Cong. Res. Serv., Tobacco Price Support: An Overview of the Program

1 (2004). Seventy percent of world tobacco production occurs in six countries, specif‌ically, the

People’s Republic of China, India, Brazil, the United States, Indonesia, and Turkey. Id.

C2012 The Author

Journal of Legal Studies Education C2011 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

95

96 Vol. 29 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education

1.2 billion people over the age of f‌ifteen are regular cigarette smokers.5

In developed countries, 35 percent of men and 22 percent of women smoke

cigarettes on a regular basis.6In developing countries, 50 percent of men and

9 percent of women smoke cigarettes on a regular basis.7Globally, smokers

consume 5.5 trillion cigarettes every year, which translates into a consumption

rate of one thousand cigarettes for every person on the planet.8

This case study examines the role of tobacco in the global marketplace

with a primary emphasis on the U.S. tobacco industry. Parts II and III set

out the pedagogical purpose, teaching objectives, and methods of classroom

delivery. Part IV is the case study that is provided to the students. First,

the case study examines U.S. government regulation of tobacco products

through federal statutes and litigation. Next, it describes the participation

of U.S. tobacco companies in the international marketplace with particular

emphasis on exports and prof‌itability. The f‌inal portion of the case study

discusses the economic and health consequences of smoking with specif‌ic

emphasis on the consequences for the developing world in general and

poor populations in particular. These factual sections are followed in Part

V by questions addressing stakeholders, the application of ethical theories,

and summaries of classroom discussions that have occurred in the author’s

courses where the case study has been utilized.

II. Purpose and Teaching Objectives

The case study was designed for students in global business ethics, an elective

course in the undergraduate curriculum at the College of Management at

the Georgia Institute of Technology.9Thecourseisalsoarecognizedelective

in the prelaw minor offered by the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. At the

undergraduate level, Global Business Ethics is a full f‌ifteen-week course for

three credit units. This course is taught in a seminar fashion. The course

focuses on three primary topics. These topics are theories of ethical analysis

5World Health Organization,Tobacco Facts 1 (2008).

6World Health Organization, Tobacco Atlas,supra note 3, at 24, 26.

7Id.

8Id. at 30.

9The author’s Global Business Ethics course is fully described in Lucien J. Dhooge, Creating a

Course in Global Business Ethics: A Modest Proposal,28 J. Legal Stud. Educ. 207 (2011).