by Jeff Sovern The next edition of our casebook will have a lot more about robocalls. According to a letter from the attorneys general of all 50 states dated yesterday, robocalls and telemarketing calls are the top source of consumer complaints at many AG's offices. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which outlaws some robocalls, also […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Andrew T. Hayashi of Virginia has written Consumer Law Myopia. Here is the abstract: People make mistakes with debt, partly because the chance to buy now and pay later tempts them to do things that are not in their long-term interest. Lenders sell credit products that exploit this vulnerability. In this Article, I argue that critiques […]
by Jeff Sovern A post inspired by a question I heard Kathleen Engel ask: every year second-year students ask professors for suggestions for topics to write about for law reviews. Law professors and other lawyers also cast about for article topics. Meanwhile, administrative agencies often confront questions about what the law is or how it […]
The University of Michigan Center for Finance, Law and Policy is holding a conference titled Consumer Protection in an Age of Uncertainty on March 21 and 22. It's great that there will be two excellent consumer law academic conferences in so short a span!
The Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice is holding its Consumer Law Scholars Conference on Thursday and Friday. More information, including the papers to be discussed, here. The Conference has an impressive list of participants and it promises to be a terrific event.
Natasha Sarin of Penn has written Making Consumer Finance Work. Here's the abstract: The financial crisis exposed major faultlines in banking and financial markets more broadly. Policymakers responded with far-reaching regulation that created a new agency—the CFPB—and changed the structure and function of these markets. Consumer advocates cheered reforms as welfare-enhancing, while the financial sector declared […]
It includes lectures by Omri Ben-Shahar on economic analysis of consumer protection law and Jonathan Masur on the behavioral law & economics of consumer choice. More here.
Uri Benoliel of the College of Law and Business – Ramat Gan Law School and Shmuel I. Becher of the Victoria University of Wellington have written The Duty to Read the Unreadable. Here's the abstract: The duty to read doctrine is a well-recognized building block of U.S. contract law. Under this doctrine, contracting parties are held […]
by Jeff Sovern My latest, here. The conclusion: When it comes to these varied privacy problems, Congress has somehow managed to be both comatose and angry. Given its inability to respond nimbly in the rapidly shifting privacy arena, Congress should avoid hamstringing those who can. Any federal privacy law should preserve the power of states to […]
Jacob Hale Russell of Rutgers and Stanford’s Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance has written Unconscionability’s Greatly Exaggerated Death. Here is the abstract: Reports of unconscionability’s demise are greatly exaggerated. According to conventional wisdom, the common-law contracts doctrine is rarely used, except in limiting clauses that purport to waive consumers’ remedial rights. In […]