Why are noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease, a growing threat to global health, despite decades of medical advance? And how can international and domestic law help us to effectively prevent and treat NCDs? This Summer School, organised by the Global Health Law Groningen Initiative, is situated at the crossroads of law and medicine to identify legal approaches to address the global rise of NCDs.

NCDs are responsible for 38 million deaths each year and nearly 75% of these strike in low- and middle-income countries. The global NCD crisis requires an equitable response. This Summer School presents the current legal framework at a global level and explores strategies to address NCDs from the perspectives of international norms, human rights and domestic law.

This Summer School brings legal responses for consumer empowerment and the regulation of the food and beverage industries into focus; it investigates tobacco control as an important condition for reducing the incidence of NCDs; it takes a rights-based approach to the challenge of securing equitable access to essential medicines for NCDs, including expensive, new essential medicines.