Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Department of Defense Proposes Military Lending Act Regulations to Protect Soldiers

The Times has the story under the headline Tougher Shield for Soldiers Against Predatory Lenders.  The proposed regulation closes loopholes like these described in the Times story: The law set a 36 percent interest rate cap on a range of high-cost loan products. But the protections applied to a narrow sliver of loans, covering only […]

Brescia & Martin on Local Government Responses to Underwater Mortgages

Raymond H. Brescia and Nicholas M. Martin, both of Albany have written The Price of Crisis: Eminent Domain, Local Governments, and the Value of Underwater Mortgages, forthcoming in 24 Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review (2014).  Here's the abstract:   Governments at all levels in the U.S. have deployed a range of tactics to […]

ContractsProf Blog Symposium on Ben-Shahar & Schneider’s Book on Disclosure

by Jeff Sovern Here.  The symposium, on Ben-Shahar's and Schneider's More Than You Wanted to Know: The Failure of Mandated Disclosure, has been running since last week and features contributions by names that will be familiar to regular readers of consumer law literature, including Lauren Willis of Loyola-LA, David Vladeck of Georgetown, Florencia Marotta-Wurgler of NYU, Nancy Kim of Cal Western, […]

Lauren Willis Paper: Performance-Based Consumer Law

Lauren E. Willis of Loyola Los Angeles has written Performance-Based Consumer Law.  Here is the abstract: When firm and consumer interests are not well-aligned, the resulting transactions are often lousy, whether one uses consumer autonomy or consumer welfare as the metric.  With modern experimental and data analysis techniques, firms can run circles around the law’s […]

“Plus the firearms and the narcotics and the payday loans”

by Jeff Sovern I am partial to Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels. I buy the audio books and listen to them while driving, doing mindless chores, etc.  In the latest, Personal, Reacher and a companion are discussing the activities of a British gang of criminals, and the sentence quoted above appears.  Interesting to see that the […]

Wasserman Article on Global Solutions to Mass Torts

Rhonda Wasserman of Pittsburgh has written Future Claimants and the Quest for Global Peace, Forthcoming in 64 Emory Law Journal (2014),  Here's the abstract: In the mass tort context, the defendant typically seeks to resolve all of the claims against it in one fell swoop.  But the defendant’s interest in global peace is often unattainable in […]

Goldman & Tushnet Casebook Chapter on Advertising Featuring People

Eric Goldman of Santa Clara and Rebecca Tushnet of Georgetown have written Featuring People in Ads (2014 Edition) from Advertising & Marketing Law: Cases and Materials (2014 edition). Here's the abstract: This is a book chapter from the 2014 edition of a casebook, Advertising & Marketing Law: Cases and Materials, by Rebecca Tushnet and Eric […]

Paper on Privacy Harms and the Notice and Choice Framework

Joel R. Reidenberg, N. Cameron Russell, Alexander J. Callen, Sophia Qasir, and Thomas B. Norton, all of Fordham, have written Privacy Harms and the Effectiveness of the Notice and Choice Framework. Here is the abstract: In the last fifteen years, the Federal Trade Commission and the White House have promoted notice and choice as the […]