Alexander Tsesis of Loyola of Chicago has written Marketplace of Ideas, Privacy, and Digital Audiences, forthcoming in the Notre Dame Law Review. Here's the abstract: The availability of almost limitless sets of digital information has opened a vast marketplace of ideas. Information service providers like Facebook and Twitter provide users with an array of personal […]
Category Archives: Consumer Law Scholarship
Kenneth P. Brevoort, Jasper Clarkberg, Michelle Kambara, and Benjamin Litwin, all currently or formerly at the CFPB, have written The Geography of Credit Invisibility. Here's the abstract: This study builds on the Bureau’s earlier work and examines the relationship between geography and credit invisibility. The importance of geography in accessing credit has been long-standing concern for […]
by Jeff Sovern Regular readers of the blog know that we often write about the ineffectiveness of disclosures, and plenty of others have the same complaint. But here's a bit of good news: a study by Michael Grubb, Paul Adams, Andrea Caflisch, Darragh Kelly, and Jeroen Nieboer, and Matthew Osborne, discussed at a recent FDIC Consumer […]
Ann M. Burkhart of Minnesota has written Fixing Foreclosure, 36 Yale Law & Policy Review (2018). Here is the abstract: Since the American Revolution, mortgage foreclosures have consisted of a public auction of the mortgaged property. Judges and state legislators at the time believed that an auction was the best way to obtain a fair price for the […]
Camilla E. Watson of Georgia has written Federal Financing of Higher Education at a Crossroads: The Evolution of the Student Loan Debt Crisis and the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Here is the abstract: Currently, there are 44.2 million Americans holding student loan debt collectively totaling $1.5 trillion. This massive debt has a […]
Yonathan A. Arbel of Alabama has written Reputation Failure: Market Discipline and Its Limits. Here is the abstract: Free-market advocates seek to repeal broad swaths of tort, contract, and consumer law, trusting reputation to provide effective market-discipline. Their core belief is that reputation assures honest dealings because a seller reputed to sell inferior goods will lose […]
by Jeff Sovern According to Private Enforcement in Administrative Courts, 72 Vanderbilt Law Review, (Forthcoming), by Michael Sant'Ambrogio of Michigan State, in the year ending March 31, 2017, the government filed only eight consumer protection cases in federal court, which contrasts with the 9,706 cases filed by private plaintiffs. Sometimes we see the argument that we don't need private enforcement […]
by Jeff Sovern My colleague, Vincent DiLorenzo, has written Fintech Lending: A Study of Expectations Versus Market Outcomes, Forthcoming in Review of Banking & Financial Law. Here is the abstract: This paper documents the expectations for the fintech lending industry, which has emerged in this decade, and compares such expectations to market outcomes. It presents an […]
Samuel Issacharoff and Florencia Marotta-Wurgler, both of NYU, have written The Hollowed Out Common Law. Here's the abstract: The electronic marketplace poses novel issues for contract law. Contracts created through browsewrap, clickwrap, and shrinkwrap (contracts whose embedded terms are only available after purchase) poorly fit doctrines that emerged from face-to-face offer and acceptance, the mutual execution […]
Todd J. Zywicki of George Mason has written The Behavioral Economics of Behavioral Law & Economics, Journal of Behavioral Economics (2019, Forthcoming). Here is the abstract: Behavioral Law & Economics (BLE) has loudly proclaimed its victory over traditional law & economics methodologies. Nowhere has this proclamation been so loud or self-certain as with respect to claims […]