James P. Nehf of Indiana–Indianapolis has written The Failure of 'Notice and Consent' as Effective Consumer Policy. Here's the abstract: Over the past several decades, the preferred model for consumer protection in most countries has emphasized a notice and consent (or choice) approach with less emphasis on normative laws that prohibit or mandate certain contract terms, […]
Category Archives: Consumer Law Scholarship
We have received the following call for abstracts (last year's conference was excellent): The Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice, its director Ted Mermin, and co-organizers Abbye Atkinson, Kathleen Engel, Manisha Padi, Rory Van Loo, and Lauren Willis are pleased to announce the second annual Consumer Law Scholars Conference (CLSC), which will be […]
Jamie Luguri and Lior Strahilevitz, both of Chicago, have written Shining a Light on Dark Patterns. Here is the abstract: Dark patterns are user interfaces whose designers knowingly confuse users, make it difficult for users to express their actual preferences, or manipulate users into taking certain actions. They typically exploit cognitive biases and prompt online consumers […]
Daniel Schwarcz of Minnesota has written Towards a Civil Rights Approach to Insurance Anti-Discrimination Law, 69 DePaul Law Review (Forthcoming). Here's the abstract: Discrimination is fundamental to the business of auto and homeowners insurance. Yet state insurance law does remarkably little to police against the risk that this discrimination will unfairly harm minority or low-income […]
That's the topic of Commissioning the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by law prof Jolina Cuaresma. Here's the abstract: There has been much debate over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s lack of executive and congressional oversight: its single director removable only for cause and its operations are not subject to appropriations. This paper explains how this […]
Matthew A. Bruckner of Howard has written Preventing Predation & Encouraging Innovation in Fintech Lending. Here is the abstract: More than 20 years ago, IBM's Deep Blue vanquished chess grandmaster and reigning world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, in a pair of best-of-six matches. Since then, numerous companies have invested large sums of money to develop additional […]
Gregory S. Crespi of Southern Methodist Universit has written Why Are 99% of the Applications for Debt Discharge under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program Being Denied, and Will This Change? Here is the abstract: During the first 18 months after October 1, 2017 that student loan borrowers were able to apply for tax-free debt […]
John P. Hunt of California, Davis has written Promoting the Purposes of Student Loans by Tempering Bankruptcy Nondischargeability. Here's the abstract: Student loans, unlike other debts, are not dischargeable in bankruptcy unless the debtor starts a special proceeding and proves that repayment would cause “undue hardship.” This requirement probably accounts for the fact that only a […]
by Jeff Sovern I've spent the last few days at a terrific International Association of Consumer Law conference at the of Indiana University's Robert H. McKinney Law School (my second great conference in five months, the other being Ted Mermin's Berkeley Consumer Law Scholars Conference). Indiana's James Nehf clearly had worked very hard to put […]
Meirav Furth-Matzkin and Roseanna Sommers, both of Chicago, have written Consumer Psychology and the Problem of Fine Print Fraud, 72 STANFORD LAW REVIEW___ (Forthcoming). Here's the abstract: This Article investigates how laypeople respond to consumer contracts that are formed as a result of fraud. Across four studies, we show that contrary to the prevailing wisdom in […]