On the Contracts Prof Blog, as part of a symposium on Nancy Kim's Wrap Contracts: Foundations and Ramifications (Oxford UP 2013). An excerpt: Like asbestos in its heyday, manufacturers and service providers use “wrap contracts” everywhere. They have properties that facilitate commerce but that does not mean that they are not toxic and dangerous for those exposed to […]
Category Archives: Consumer Law Scholarship
James C. Cooper of George Mason has written The Perils of Excessive Discretion: The Elusive Meaning of Unfairness in Section 5 of the FTC Act. Here's the abstract: Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act gives the FTC an undefined mandate to prosecute "unfair methods of competition." For nearly 100 years, the Commission […]
Charles L. Knapp of Hastings has written Unconscionability in American Contract Law: A Twenty-First Century Survey. Here's the abstract: The notion that a court tasked with enforcing a private agreement should be allowed – or even, in some cases, required – to withhold enforcement because of the unfairness of the agreement is not a new […]
by Deepak Gupta If you'll be in New Orleans tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 15), I hope you'll drop by the Hyatt French Quarter for the Louisiana Bar's consumer law seminar. Among other things, Professor Dalie Jimenez of the University of Connecticut (a former CFPB colleague) will discuss her research on debt buyers. At 4pm, you can watch […]
Scott Savage and Donald M. Waldman , both of the University of Colorado at Boulder – Department of Economics, have written The Value of Online Privacy. Here is the abstract: We estimate the value of online privacy with a differentiated products model of the demand for Smartphone apps. We study the apps market because it […]
We've been asked to post the following RFP: Suffolk Law School and the National Consumer Law Center are convening a Research Symposium on Student Loans in Boston on April 10th and 11th. The goal of the Symposium, which is invitation-only, is to bring together the nation’s top experts, including academics, attorneys, industry representatives, consumer advocates, […]
Shauhin A. Talesh of Irvin has written How the 'Haves' Come Out Ahead in the Twenty-First Century, 62 De Paul Law Review .519 (2013). Here is the abstract: This paper attempts to bridge and link the “speculations” in Marc Galanter’s seminal article in 1974 regarding how repeat players influence public legal institutions by playing for […]
Vikram Jambulapati of MIT's Sloan School of Management and Joanna Stavins of the Boston Fed have written The Credit CARD Act of 2009: What Did Banks Do? Here's the abstract: The Credit CARD Act of 2009 was intended to prevent practices in the credit card industry that lawmakers viewed as deceptive and abusive. Among other changes, […]
Emily Houh and Kristin Kalsem, both of Cincinnati, have written It's Critical: Legal Participatory Action Research, forthcoming in 18 Michigan Journal of Race & Law. Here's the abstract: The ongoing community-based research project that we describe in this article will contribute, we hope, to an understanding of the fringe economy by offering insights into what […]
Wayne Barnes of Texas A&M has wrtiten Social Media and the Rise in Consumer Bargaining Power,14 U. Pa. J. Bus. L. 661 (2012). Here's the abstract: Consumers are constantly entering into form contracts, both offline and online. They do not read most of the terms, but the duty to read says the contracts are nevertheless […]