Category Archives: Consumer Law Scholarship

Alisher Juzgenbayev Note: The Vanishing Enforcer: Consumer Protection in an Era of Dual Retrenchment

Alisher Juzgenbayev, a J.D./Ph.D. Candidate at Northwestern, has written The Vanishing Enforcer: Consumer Protection in an Era of Dual Retrenchment, 120 Nw. L. Rev. 1449 (2026). Here’s the abstract: Recent developments, including reductions in the federal workforce, effective suspension of certain enforcement activities, and attempted centralization of independent agency rulemaking in the White House, have […]

Richard Frankel essay: Addressing Mandatory Arbitration in an Age of Federal Dysfunction

At 38 Loyola Consumer Law Review 183 (2026). Here’s the abstract: The second Trump Administration has waged war against consumers and against the federal agencies that seek to protect consumers. It has tried to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, expand the President’s authority to exert iron-fisted control over agency directors, and significantly shrink the federal workforce that in the […]

Consumers’ “right to repair”

From a post on The Regulatory Review: “When a printer malfunctions beyond the scope of a quick fix, or a smartphone screen cracks beyond use, consumers often have few options. Many manufacturers restrict who may repair the products they make and market, authorizing only a select few technicians. Such restrictions may subject consumers to longer […]

Ellengold & Laing article on the use of government to collect private debts

Kate Elengold of UNC and Sophie Laing Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Inc. have written Offsetting Justice: Using Government Power To Collect Private Debts, 175 Penn. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2027). Here’s the abstract: Private creditors regularly hire third-party debt collectors to recoup debt on their behalf by contacting, coercing, and suing consumer debtors. Scholars, advocates, and policymakers […]

Blasie paper on the legal system’s foundational delusion: that ordinary people can understand the laws and legal documents that govern them

Michael Blasie of Seattle has written Information Poverty and the Right to Understand. Here is the abstract: Legal systems around the world, and particularly in the United States, rest on a foundational delusion: that ordinary people can understand the laws and legal documents that govern them. Despite the growing focus on “access to justice,” most […]

Paper on how disclosure’s effects vary by consumer income

Tamar Kricheli-Katz of Tel Aviv University and Florencia Marotta-Wurgler of NYU have written The Distributional Costs of Effective Consumer Regulation. Here’s the abstract: Disclosure is a cornerstone of consumer protection regulation, yet little is known about its differential effects across consumers. We study how disclosure format influences decision-making across the income distribution, drawing on insights from […]

Brad Lipton paper on Dodd-Frank as a statutory hammer–and a prototype for more

Brad Lipton of the Roosevelt Institute has written Statutory Hammers: Legislative Drafting in an Age of Cynical Litigation, Harvard Law School Journal of Legislation. Here is the abstract: Over the past decade, cynical litigation in our federal courts has fundamentally altered the operation of the administrative state. Agency rulemaking now unfolds against a backdrop of forum […]

Brooklyn Debt Symposium articles available

Last year, the Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law held an all-star symposium on debt, revolving around five recent books on the subject, including books by consumer law scholars Pat McCoy, Pamela Foohey, and Melissa B. Jacoby. The Symposium articles are now available, with pieces by Norman I. Silber, Edward J. Janger, A. […]

Paper on how consumer protection enforcement is going away

Alisher Juzgenbaye, a Northwestern JD/Ph.D student has written The Vanishing Enforcer: Consumer Protection in an Era of Dual Retrenchment. Here’s the abstract (the paper left out the third source of retrenchment: arbitration clauses): Recent developments, including reductions in the federal workforce, effective suspension of certain enforcement activities, and attempted centralization of independent agency rulemaking in the […]