Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Paper on Private Enforcement

Stephen B. Burbank of Pennsylvania, Sean Farhang of Berkeley' s Goldman School of Public Policy, and Herbert M. Kritzer of Minnesota have written Private Enforcement, 17 Lewis & Clark Law Review 637 (2013).  Here's the abstract: Our aim in this Article is to advance understanding of private enforcement of statutory and administrative law in the […]

Sovern Paper: Cost-Benefit Analysis and Consumer Protection

by Jeff Sovern I've posted a paper on SSRN, Can Cost-Benefit Analysis Help Consumer Protection Laws? Or at Least Benefit Analysis?, forthcoming in the University of California-Irvine Law Review.  Here's the abstract: Cost-benefit analysis is often troubling to consumer advocates. But this article argues that in some circumstances it may help consumers. The article gives […]

Lahav Paper: Symmetry and Class Action Litigation

Alexandra D. Lahav of Connecticut has written Symmetry and Class Action Litigation, 60 U.C.L.A.L. Rev.(2013).  Here's the abstract: In ordinary litigation, parties often have different resources to devote to their lawsuit. This is a problem because the adversarial system is predicated on two (or more) parties, equal and opposite one another, making their best arguments […]

Skiba Paper: Tax Rebates and Payday Borrowing

Paige Marta Skiba of Vanderbilt has written Tax Rebates and the Cycle of Payday Borrowing.  Here's the abstract: I use evidence from a $300 tax rebate to test whether receipt of this cash infusion by payday borrowers affects the likelihood of borrowing, loan sizes, or default behavior. Results from fixed-effects models show that the rebate […]

Kar Comments on Boilerplate

Robin Bradley Kar of Illinois has written The Challenge of Boilerplate, forthcoming in Jotwell.  Here's the abstract: Although Margaret Jane Radin is perhaps best known for her work in property theory, she has recently been focusing her formidable intellect on questions of contract. Boilerplate reflects her first book length treatment of these topics, and there […]

Cass Sunstein et al.: Disclosure: Psychology Changes Everything

George Loewenstein of Carnegie Mellon University – Department of Social and Decision Sciences ("CMU"), Cass R. Sunstein of Harvard Law School, and Russell Golman, also of CMU, have written Disclosure: Psychology Changes Everything.  Here's the abstract: We review literature examining the effects of laws and regulations that require public disclosure of information. These requirements are […]

A Pair of Privacy Papers: Big Data

Michael Birnhack of Tel Aviv University has written S-M-L-XL Data:  Big Data as a New Informational Privacy Paradigm. Here's the abstract: Can informational privacy law survive Big Data? A few scholars have pointed to the inadequacy of the current legal framework to Big Data, especially the collapse of notice and consent, the principles of data […]

Braucher on Scams, Literature, and Behavioral Economics

Jean Braucher of Arizona haas written Scamming Considered as One of the Exact Sciences:  19th Century American Literature Foreshadows Insights of Behavioral Economics.  Here's the abstract: Nineteenth century American literary masters Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain (with co-author Charles Dudley Warner) all examined scamming in their largely pre-regulatory time. These authors made […]

Guest Post from Kathleen C. Engel: Currents, Continents and Consumer Law

We are grateful to Professor Kathleen C. Engel of Suffolk University Law School for providing this guest post on the International Association of Consumer Law biannual conference: Every two years, consumer law academics from around the world gather to present their research and discuss their countries’ credit markets and consumer protection laws. This year, the International […]