Alcohol is the sole major psychoactive substance with a huge negative public health and social impact without some form of international control grounded in a binding treaty. While existing rules of international law, in particular in the economic field, favour liberalisation and may hinder strong national alcohol control measures, we may be witnessing a turning of the tide due to the growing mobilisation against non-communicable diseases. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has been a ground-breaking development in this sense, and has led policymakers and advocates in a number of countries to raise the possibility of a similar convention on alcohol control. The present contribution compares tobacco and alcohol from this perspective and considers the feasibility of a dedicated international convention. It concludes that the political prospects of a movement in this direction are very dim at the present time; however, policy developments on other health problems and theoretical models emerging from constructivist international relations scholarship may open up promising perspectives for considering normative and institutional approaches that could strengthen the existing legal framework and facilitate political processes towards stronger forms of legalisation of global alcohol control.

中文翻译：

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控制酒精的全球法律工具：选择、前景和挑战

酒精是唯一一种对公共健康和社会产生巨大负面影响的主要精神活性物质，没有以具有约束力的条约为基础的某种形式的国际控制。虽然现有的国际法规则，特别是经济领域的规则，有利于自由化，并可能阻碍强有力的国家酒精控制措施，但由于抗击非传染性疾病的动员日益增加，我们可能正在目睹潮流的转变。从这个意义上说，《烟草控制框架公约》是一项开创性的发展，并促使许多国家的政策制定者和倡导者提出了制定类似酒精控制公约的可能性。目前的贡献从这个角度比较了烟草和酒精，并考虑了专门的国际公约的可行性。它的结论是，目前朝这个方向运动的政治前景非常暗淡；然而，关于其他健康问题的政策发展和建构主义国际关系学术中出现的理论模型可能会为考虑规范和制度方法开辟有希望的前景，这些方法可以加强现有法律框架并促​​进政治进程，以实现更强有力的全球酒精控制合法化形式。