Category Archives: Consumer Law Scholarship

Lauren Willis Article on the CFPB and Consumer Comprehension

Lauren E. Willis of Loyola Los Angeles has written what looks like another important article,  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Quest for Consumer Comprehension.  Here is the abstract: To ensure that consumers “understand [financial products’] costs, benefits, and risks,” the CFPB has been redesigning mandated disclosures, primarily through iterative lab testing. But no […]

Dennis Hirsch Paper on Big Data and the FTC’s Unfairness Authority

Dennis D. Hirsch of Capital has written That's Unfair! Or Is It? Big Data, Discrimination and the FTC's Unfairness Authority, 103 Kentucky Law Journal (2015). Here is the abstract: Big data and data analytics (“big data”) can produce many social and economic benefits.  But they can also generate privacy injuries and harmful discrimination.  The governance of […]

Johnston Paper Questions Whether Product Bans Help Consumers

Jason Scott Johnston of Virginia has written Do Product Bans Help Consumers? Questioning the Economic Foundations of Dodd-Frank Mortgage Regulation. Here is the abstract: The system of residential mortgage contact regulation enacted by the 2010 Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 has been justified as necessary to prevent lenders from […]

Call For Papers by AALS: Female Perspectives in Commercial and Consumer Law

Jim Hawkins of Houston has asked me to post the following:  The AALS Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law is pleased to announce a Call for Papers for its program co-sponsored by the Section on Women in Legal Education during the AALS 2016 Annual Meeting.  The papers from the program will be published in […]

Joanna Schwartz Paper on Whether Class Actions Coerce Settlements

Joanna C. Schwartz of UCLA has written The Cost of Suing Business, forthcoming in the DePaul Law Review. Here's the abstract: To listen to the Chamber of Commerce, one would think that class actions are the most significant scourge on business ever conjured up by man. In brief after brief to the Supreme Court, the […]

Nathalie Martin Study of Undocumented Immigrants’ Banking and Credit Habits

Nathalie Martin of New Mexico has written Giving Credit Where Credit is Due: What We Can Learn from the Banking and Credit Habits of Undocumented Immigrants.  Here's the abstract: Undocumented immigrants currently make up more than 5% of the U.S. labor force and 7% of school-age children. Numbering over eleven million, undocumented immigrants unquestionably comprise […]

Talesh Article: How Private Organizations Influence the Content and Meaning of Consumer Protection Legislation

Shauhin A. Talesh of Irvine has written Institutional and Political Sources of Legislative Change: Explaining How Private Organizations Influence the Form and Content of Consumer Protection Legislation, 39 Law and Social Inquiry 973 (2014 ). Here's the abstract: This article explores how private organizations influence the content and meaning of consumer protection legislation. I examine […]

Helveston Paper on Courts and Consumer Protection

Max N. Helveston of DePaul has written Judicial Deregulation of Consumer Markets, forthcoming in the Cardozo Law Review. Here's the abstract:   The dangers posed by insufficiently regulated consumer markets are both real and monumental. While the rights of consumers expanded drastically in the mid-to-late twentieth century, these protections have weakened in the new millennium. […]

Kim & Telman on Internet Giants as Quasi-Governmental Actors and Contractual Consent

Nancy S. Kim of California Western and D. A. Jeremy Telman of Valparaiso have written Internet Giants as Quasi-Governmental Actors and the Limits of Contractual Consent, Forthcoming in the Missouri Law Review. Here is the abstract: Although the government’s data-mining program relied heavily on information and technology that the government received from private companies, relatively little […]

Vairo on Class Actions

Georgene M. Vairo of Loyola Los Angeles haw written Is the Class Action Really Dead? Is that Good or Bad for Class Members? 64 Emory Law Journal 477 (2014). Here's the abstract: Recent Supreme Court decisions have tightened up the standards for obtaining class certification and virtually eliminate class arbitration as well. However, while the […]