All posts by Gail Pearson

Conference on Collective Redress in Consumer Disputes

Conferences and Calls for Papers, , ,

The Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa will hold its second international conference on resolution of mass disputes on March 16th-17th, 2017. This second conference is organized jointly with the European Institute in Florence, and City University of Hong Kong, and focuses primarily on international consumer disputes. It hosts a number of distinguished scholars and practitioners from different jurisdictions, including Asia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. Among the confirmed speakers are Professors John Coffee from Columbia Law School, Carrie Menkel-Meadow from UCI Law, Arthur Miller from NYU, Geraint Howells from City University of Hong Kong, Hans-Wolfgang Micklitz from the EUI, Diana Wallis former Vice President of the European Parliament and current president of the European Law Institute, and Adrian Zuckerman from the University of Oxford.

Faculty of Law, University of Haifa. March 16th-17th, 2017.

Report on 15th IACL Conference

IACL events and reports, ,

The theme of the 2015 International Association of Consumer Law conference was ‘virtues and consumer law’. The conference was hosted by the University of Amsterdam and took places in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The key question discussed during the conference was: what makes consumer protection law fit for consumers and businesses? This question was addressed from various angles, dealing with various virtues and their relation to consumer protection law.

The conference hosted 39 workshops (during 8 concurrent sessions) on themes such as Hope (in the era of a financial crisis), Fairness (against unfair commercial practices and against unfair terms), Compassion (in clinical trials and towards vulnerable consumers in financial sector), Forgiveness (through arbitration and ODR), Trust (through data protection) and Self-realization (in consumer contracts). Keynote speeches were held by, i.a., the late Norbert Reich (University of Bremen), Omri Ben-Shahar (University of Chicago), Carina Törnblom (European Commission), Verica Trstenjak (former Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union) and Oren Bar-Gil (Harvard University).

The conference was attended by well over 200 participants –academics, consumer advocates, business representatives and lawyers – from all over the world. The conference was organized by prof. dr. Marco Loos, dr. Joasia Luzak and Sacha Tamboer, LLM.

Montreal Conference

Conferences and Calls for Papers, , ,

CANADA MONTREAL  – SAVE THE DATE JULY 2016

 !!! NOTEZ LES DATES DANS VOS AGENDAS !!!

 ÉCOLE d’été sur la protection du consommateur

Développements récents en droit national, comparé et international

 où ?                           Montréal (Québec, Canada)

 quand ?                   Lundi 4 au samedi 9 juillet 2016

 organisateurs  

  • Groupe de recherche en droit international et comparé de la consommation (GREDICC), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Montréal, Québec, Canada.
  • Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brésil.

 DESTINATAIRES

 Étudiants (le cours peut éventuellement être crédité), enseignants et chercheurs. 

  • Juges, avocats, professionnels et responsables d’associations professionnelles.
  • Fonctionnaires.
  • Responsables d’organisations de consommateurs ou autres acteurs du monde associatif.

interveNANTS        Professeurs d’universités (10) et experts en droit de la consommation du Canada, des États-Unis, du Brésil et des pays de l’Union européenne.

 programme                    

 4 juillet :         Fondements et enjeux contemporains du droit national, régional et international de la consommation – Principes directeurs des Nations unies 2015. Prof. Thierry Bourgoignie, Prof. Claudia Lima-Marques, Prof. Gilles Paisant, Robin Simpson.

5 juillet :         Environnement numérique et protection du consommateur – Protection des données personnelles – Produits numériques et propriété intellectuelle.

Prof. Vincent Gautrais, Prof. Roberto Pfeiffer, Robin Simpson.

6 juillet :          Au choix :

  • Crédit et surendettement du consommateur.

Prof. Gilles Paisant, Prof. Marc Lacoursière.

  • Sécurité des produits de consommation – Surveillance du marché – Infrastructure Qualité. Thierry Bourgoignie, Ivan Hendrikx.

7 juillet :          Modes de production et de consommation durables – Obsolescence programmée.

Prof. Fabien Durif, Prof. Patricia Galindo, Richard-Alexandre Laniel.

8 & 9 juillet : Accès à la justice et règlement des litiges – Actions collectives – Mise en œuvre transfrontières du droit de la consommation. Prof. Richard Alderman, Prof. Pierre-Claude Lafond, Prof. Geneviève Saumier, Eladio Lecej.

9 juillet :          Développements récents en droit national, régional et international (Open forum).

 Langues                              Français et anglais (avec traduction simultanée).

PLUS D’INFORMATIONS   Programme détaillé, droits et procédure d’inscription disponibles mi- décembre 2015 sur le site www.gredicc.uqam.ca ou en contactant Prof. Thierry Bourgoignie à : [email protected]

!!! Save the dates !!!

SUMMER SCHOOL in CONSUMER law and policy

Recent developments in national, comparative and international law

 WHERE?                    Montreal (Quebec, Canada)

WHEN?                      Monday 4 to Saturday 9 JULY 2016

Organizers 

 Groupe de recherche en droit international et comparé de la consommation (GREDICC), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

 RECIPIENTS

 Students (possibility to have the course credited), academics and researchers.

  • Judges, lawyers, professionals, industry or trade associations.
  • Government and administration officials.
  • Consumer organizations and other NGO’s.

 LECTURERS             University professors (10) and first-rank senior experts in consumer law and policy from Canada, United States, Brazil and Europe.

 programme

 4 July :           Consumer policy today – Contemporary challenges – 2015 UN Guidelines on consumer protection. Prof. Thierry Bourgoignie, Prof. Claudia Lima-Marques, Prof. Gilles Paisant, Robin Simpson.

5 July :           Digital consumers – Personal data protection – Digital products and intellectual property.  Prof. Vincent Gautrais, Prof. Roberto Pfeiffer, Robin Simpson.

6 July :            Choice between  :

  • Consumer credit – Consumer overindebtedness. Gilles Paisant, Prof. Marc Lacoursière.
  • Product safety – Market surveillance- Quality infrastructure. Thierry Bourgoignie, Ivan Hendrikx.

7 July :           Sustainable production and consumption patterns – Planned obsolescence.

Prof. Fabien Durif, Prof. Patricia Galindo, Richard-Alexandre Laniel.

8 & 9 July :    Access to justice and consumer redress – Collective redress procedures – Cross-border enforcement of consumer law. Prof. Richard Alderman, Prof. Pierre-Claude Lafond, Prof. Geneviève Saumier, Eladio Lecej.

9 July :            Recent developments in consumer law and policy (Open forum).

 LanguAGEs                        French and English (with simultaneous translation).

 MORE INFORMATION      Detailed programme, registration fees and procedures available by mid-December 2015 at www.gredicc.uqam.ca, or by contacting Prof.  Thierry BOURGOIGNIE at [email protected]

!!! RESERVE A DATA NA SUA AGENDA !!!

CURSO DE VERÃO SOBRE PROTEÇÃO DO CONSUMIDOR

Evolução recente em direito nacional, comparado e internacional

 onde ?                      MontrEal (Quebec, Canadá)

quandO ?                De 4 a 9 de JULHO DE 2016 (segunda a sexta-feira)

organiZADORES 

  • Groupe de recherche en droit international et comparé de la consommation (GREDICC), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Montreal, Quebec, Canadá
  • Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brasil

PÚBLICO ALVO

  • Professores, pesquisadores e estudantes. 
  • Juízes, advogados, membros do Ministério Público e da Defensoria Públicages, advogados, profissionais e responsáveis por associações profissionais.
  • Membros dos DPDC, dos Procons e demais servidores públicos.
  • Responsáveis pelas organizações de consumidores e outros atores sociais do mundo associativo.

 interveNIENTES           Professores universitários (10) e experts em Direito do Consumidor do Canadá, dos Estados Unidos, do Brasil e dos países integrantes da União Europeia.

 programA                      

 4 de julho :     Fundamentos e desafios contemporâneos do direito nacional, regional e internacional do consumidor – Princípios Norteadores das Nações Unidas 2015. Prof. Thierry Bourgoignie, Prof. Claudia Lima-Marques, Prof. Gilles Paisant, Robin Simpson.

5 de julho :     Ambiente digital e proteção dos consumidores – Proteção dos dados pessoais – Produtos virtuais e propriedade intelectual. Prof. Vincent Gautrais, Prof. Roberto Pfeiffer, Robin Simpson.

6 de julho :      A escolher :

  • Crédito e superendividamento do consumidor. Gilles Paisant, Prof. Marc Lacoursière.
  • Segurança dos produtos de consumo – Fiscalização do mercado – Infraestrutura Qualidade. Thierry Bourgoignie, Ivan Hendrikx.

7 de julho :      Produção e consumo sustentáveis  – Obsolescência programada.

Prof. Fabien Durif, Prof. Patricia Galindo da Fonseca, Richard-Alex. Laniel.

8 de julho :     Acesso à justiça e acordo entre as partes – Ações coletivas – Aplicação transfronteiriça do Direito do Consumidor. Prof. Richard Alderman, Prof. Pierre-Claude Lafond, Prof. Geneviève Saumier, Eladio Lecey.

9 de julho :     Evoluções recentes em direito nacional, regional e internacional

 IDIOMAS                              Francês e inglê (tradução simultânea).

mais informações     Programa detalhado, direitos e procedimento de inscrição disponíveis a partir da segunda quinzena de dezembro de 2015, no site www.gredicc.uqam.ca ou contactando Prof. Thierry Bourgoignie à : [email protected]

New Mexico: Teaching Consumer Law Conference 2016

Conferences and Calls for Papers,

Call for Papers:

Teaching Consumer Law in Our Popular Culture and Social Media

Teaching Consumer Law Conference – Santa Fe, New Mexico, 20 & 21 May 2016

The Center for Consumer Law at the University of Houston Law Center, in cooperation with the University of New Mexico School of Law, is organizing its eighth international law teaching conference. The subject is “Teaching Consumer Law in Our Popular Culture and Social Media. The Conference will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the “City Different,” one of the most interesting cities in the United States.

The Conference will focus on traditional issues of consumer law, as well as how, if at all, the teaching of consumer law should be affected by popular culture and social media. The Conference is directed at those currently teaching or interested in teaching consumer law at the law school or college level. A discussion of prior Conferences may be found at: http://www.jtexconsumerlaw.com/V10N2/V10N2Teaching.pdf; http://www.jtexconsumerlaw.com/V12N1/V12N1_Teaching4.pdf; http://www.jtexconsumerlaw.com/V14N2/V14N2_Teaching.pdf

http://www.jtexconsumerlaw.com/V18N2/V18N2_Teaching.pdf

The 2016 conference will deal with themes such as:

  • How should we integrate the increased use of social media into a consumer law course?
  • What innovations can we bring to the consumer law classroom to reflect popular culture?
  • Does we need more consumer regulation, or less? What is the impact in the US of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and how do you teach it?
  • Are there innovative ways to resolve consumer problems?  What are other countries doing?
  • How can we teach the multitude of subjects encompassed within the term “consumer law”?
  • International consumer law developments and innovations.
  • How do we deal with intra-state and intra-national consumer transactions?
  • Update on an area of consumer law.

Papers and presentations are invited on any of the above themes, or any other topic related to the teaching of consumer law. Proposed topics may discuss the law of any jurisdiction; however, the emphasis is on topics of interest to law school professors and those with an interest in entering the profession.

Those who wish to submit a paper or presentation topic are invited to forward a proposal including a brief abstract of not longer than 400 words and contact information for the author. The proposals should be sent to Richard M. Alderman at [email protected]. Proposals should be submitted no later than 15 January 2016. Authors will be promptly notified of acceptance. Final drafts of the papers that are to be included in the Conference materials are to be forwarded not later than the 1st of May 2016. The language of the conference is English. Conference registration fees will be waived for all presenters. Some scholarships are available for travel and room costs. Selected papers will be published in the Journal of Consumer and Commercial Law, http://www.jtexconsumerlaw.com.

If you are not sure about a proposal, but simply want to be placed on our mailing list for more information about the Conference, visit http://law.uh.edu/ccl/2014TCLC/homepage.asp

Consumer Protection: New Age Challenges

Conferences and Calls for Papers,

INDIA – NEW DELHI

The National Law University Delhi, a premier national law university of India is announcing National Seminar on CONSUMER PROTECTION: NEW AGE CHALLENGES to be organised on February 19-20, 2016 at its campus in Dwarka, New Delhi.  This is being organised in collaboration with Centre for Consumer Studies, IIPA, the seminar aims to conduct a discussion amongst legal luminaries, academics, members of Voluntary Consumer Organizations (VCOs) and enforcement agencies at a time when the Indian Government is endeavouring to amend the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

The major theme of the programme will be “New Age Challenges in Consumer Protection”. The authors may choose any topic under this broad theme.

CALL FOR PAPERS:

Well researched original research papers, case studies and survey reports are invited from the academics, practitioners, researchers, VCOs, students and other stakeholders working and interested in the field of consumer protection.

For any query please call: +919868449370, +919278888608 or e-mail us at[email protected]   by DECEMBER 10 2015

Link for the Seminar Brochure: http://www.nludelhi.ac.in/up-event1.aspx?id=40

Conference on class actions

Conferences and Calls for Papers

The Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa will hold an international conference on Legal Resolution of Mass Disputes on November 26th-27th 2015. The conference will host a number of distinguished scholars and practitioners from different jurisdictions, including Asia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Conveners: Dr Ariel Flavian, Dr Rabeea Assy

More information and to Register click here »

Call for Papers – 15th conference of the IACL

Conferences and Calls for Papers, IACL events and reports, ,

Submission deadline: 15 November 2014
Dates: Monday, 29 June 2015 – Wednesday, 1 July 2015
Location: Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands)

The 15th conference of the International Association of Consumer law is organized on the theme of “Virtues and Consumer Law”. We kindly invite participants from all around the world to submit an abstract of a paper they would like to present during the conference addressing one of the virtues and consumer protection issues. The conference will run from approximately 10:00 AM on Monday, June 29, 2015 to 4:30 PM on Wednesday, July 1, 2015. It will be held at the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam. The goal of this conference is to provide a forum where leading international scholars, practitioners, representatives of consumer organizations, public authorities and business can gather together to present and discuss issues relevant to consumer protection in many sectors (financial law, health law, information law, sales law, etc.) and from various perspectives. We welcome both theoretical and empirical submissions.

TOPICS

While papers on all topics related to consumer protection are welcome, we especially encourage submissions related to the following topic areas:

  • Self-realization (in tourism, air travel or entertainment sector);
  • Faith (in public and/or private enforcement of consumer law, in collective redress);
  • Curiosity (in e-commerce, telecommunication sector or on innovation and consumer law);
  • Compassion (towards vulnerable consumers, in medicine or in clinical trials); Frugality (in the banking sector or in financial contracts);
  • Fairness (against unfair commercial practices and/or misleading advertising, against unfair contract terms, in protection of SMEs, through good faith and fair dealing);
  • Trust (through data protection, on privacy and security issues, through product safety and/or product liability, from behavioural economics perspective);
  • Forgiveness (through mediation or ADR);
  • Self-development (through education, through services, through consumer sale contracts);
  • Hope (against overindebtness, through clean-slate doctrine, by way of insurance).

 

ABSTRACT

All interested should submit an abstract (500 words maximum) of a paper they would like to present and a CV to this address: [email protected] by November 15, 2014. All submissions will be reviewed by the organizers of the conference. All participants will be notified of the organizers’ decisions by January, 15, 2015. The timely notification should allow participants to benefit from often announced in January various reductions on flights to Amsterdam (for example, with the Dutch airline KLM).

FURTHER DETAILS

The chosen papers will be presented during concurrent workshop sessions with the presentation time being (strictly) limited to max 15 minutes. There will be short discussion time guaranteed in each concurrent workshop session. Authors of best papers will be presented with a possibility of publishing them in a volume, however, all authors will be ultimately free to publish their work in other venues, if they choose so. Please note that ALL participants (including presenters of the chosen papers for each concurrent workshops sessions) are expected to timely register according to the Registration policy as set on our website, which involves timely and full payment of the registration fee. Participants are warmly invited to attend all days of the conference, including the social program (drinks after the closing of the conference on both Monday and Tuesday; two conference dinners, on Monday and Tuesday respectively; canal boat ride).

Report on the 14th IACL Conference

IACL events and reports, ,

Sydney turned from weeks of rain to beautiful winter sun to welcome the 14th biennial conference of the International Association of Consumer Law at the University of Sydney.

The theme of the conference was diversity and it lived up to this. There were 66 papers from 16 countries. This does not include the plenary sessions. The conference was opened by the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Sydney who explained the spiritual significance of the land and welcomed visitors to a place of gathering for ceremonies and learning for thousands of years.

The President of the Association, Vice chancellor Sothi Rachagan spoke on financial services and the disparities between the banked and unbanked world.

The Opening address by our guest, The Hon Justice S Rares was a lively account of some early fetters on freedom of contract and a critique of the multitude of overlapping statutory protections in current consumer law in Australia.

This was followed by another plenary panel. This was a presentation of research undertaken by the Consumer Action Law Centre to assess the performance of federal and state regulators in taking enforcement measures and a subsequent discussion involving four senior Australian regulators. The next day in another plenary session three Ombudsmen addressed the conference outlining their role and the volume and type of complaints they deal with. In the afternoon at the final plenary session three regulators outlined how the new Australian consumer law is administered and the nature of cooperation between the states which ensures for instance that travelling scammers are tracked from state to state and local communities warned through the media.

The Brazilian Consul General briefly addressed the conference on the importance of the Brazilian proposal for a convention on the international protection of tourists.

There was much sharing of information, proposals for reform, and cross fertilisation of ideas between delegates who came from every continent and included academics, representatives of consumer organisations, representatives of regulatory agencies, other ombudsmen, and judges.

The speaker at the conference dinner is one of the stars of the Australian Broadcasting Commission television program The Checkout. This is a comedy program with a serious consumer affairs message. Several delegates from different countries now intend to use utube segments from The Checkout in their teaching.

The conference supported a statement sent to it from the International Law Association Committee on the International Protection of Tourists as Consumers.

“The International Association of Consumer Law [or the IACL-members], on the occasion of the 14th Biannual Conference at the University of Sydney, expresses strong support for the Brazilian Government’s Proposal to add to the working agenda of the Hague Conference on Private International Law the subject of the protection of international tourists as consumers. The Brazilian Proposal to create a global cooperation network on the subject has every chance of success and the IACL wants to compliment this effort to facilitate the protection of international tourists as consumers.”

Those members of the IACL Board who were present at the conference met. This followed email exchange with other Board members. There was a general meeting of the IACL.

It was agreed that the governance structure of the Association should be changed to include an Advisory Panel and a Board. The Advisory Panel should consist of the founding members of the conference and Past Presidents. It is desirable that at least one past President should remain on the Board.

It is envisaged the Advisory Panel will be Antonio Benjamin, Thierry Bourgoine, Geraint Howells, Sothi Rachagan, Iain Ramsay, Thomas Wilhelmsson

The Board thanks the following for their valued contributions to the Association:

Gabriel Stiglitz – who has stepped down for Sebastián Barocelli with the aim of reviving Argentinian participation. Peter Rott who said he is happy to stand down to make way for Marco Loos. Allen Zysblatt is retired and happy to stand down. There does not appear to be anyone from the immediate region to take his place at present.