Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Contributors -- Preface -- Table of cases -- Australia -- Canada -- European Court of Human Rights -- European Union -- France -- Germany -- The Netherlands -- United Kingdom -- United States -- World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) -- Table of statutes and other instruments -- Australia -- Canada -- European Union -- Conventions -- Directives -- Regulations -- Treaties -- Finland -- Germany -- The Netherlands -- United Kingdom -- United States -- 1 Consumers' access to justice: an introduction -- Introduction -- Perspectives on consumers' access to justice -- Issues in contract and tort -- Services and the consumer -- Consumer bankruptcy law -- Procedure and process issues -- Conflict of laws issues -- Conclusion -- Part I Perspectives on consumers' access to justice -- 2 Consumer redress and access to justice -- Introduction -- The development of the concept of access to justice -- Socio-legal studies of consumer disputing -- Consumer disputing and the problematic of law and everyday life -- The role of intermediaries in the provision of access to justice -- Small claims courts and consumers -- Summary -- The comparative dimension: legal transplants and irritants -- 3 Consumer access to justice in common law countries: a survey of the issues from a law and economics perspective -- Introduction -- The problem of legal costs -- Cost-spreading solutions -- Legal aid -- Contingent fees -- Class actions and public interest suits -- Cost-avoidance solutions -- Small claims tribunals -- Consumer agencies -- Industry-specific arrangements -- Substantive law reform -- Conclusion -- 4 Rethinking consumer protection policy -- Introduction -- Principles for an information-based approach to consumer protection policy -- Defining the problem.

Deciding whether regulation is a necessary and feasible response -- Choosing a regulatory instrument -- The role of civil redress in consumer protection policy -- To what extent is civil justice a public good? -- A decision-tree framework for evaluating institutional options in the provision of civil justice -- Public or private law enforcement -- Public legal education -- Informal dispute resolution -- Wholesale rather than retail civil justice -- Judicial oversight of non-judicial adjudicative systems -- Small claims courts -- Reforming the formal judicial adjudication process -- Judicial policing of unfair contract terms -- Standard form contracts -- Material non-disclosure -- Cognitive incapacity -- Coercion/situational monopoly -- Conclusion -- Part II Issues in contract and tort -- 5 Standard form contracts in Europe and North America: one hundred years of unfair terms? -- Introduction -- The old paradigm I. Sociology of law: standard form contracts and the power of the firm -- Origins of standardised contractual terms -- Subjection -- Overcoming subjection: the case for compulsory terms -- The old paradigm II. Law and economics: standard form contracts and the market -- Preliminary observations -- Protecting customers through compulsory terms -- Efficiency-oriented theories -- A deregulatory view -- Reregulatory views -- Reregulation through a property rule-disclosure -- Reregulation through a liability rule-the option for compulsory terms -- Reregulation through default rules -- Ultimate scholarly view in favour of compulsory terms -- On the illusory efficiency of the deregulatory, disclosure and default rules views -- Inefficiency of customers' acquiring information -- Inefficiency of sellers' providing information -- The efficiency of compulsory terms -- The new paradigm: rethinking unfairness.

Hypothesis A: the case for avoiding compulsory terms too costly for society -- Hypothesis B: the case for avoiding compulsory terms unduly costly for society -- Hypothesis C: avoiding compulsory terms unduly costly for institutional reasons -- Conclusion -- 6 BSE, CJD, mass infections and the 3rd US Restatement -- Introduction -- General -- Structure of the Restatement: fragmentation according to certain proof shortcuts and according to product class -- Structure of the Restatement: fragmentation according to classification of dangerous condition -- How would a BSE/CJD case be dealt with under the Restatement? -- The treatment of infection cases by the Restatement: raw materials versus food -- Contrasting gaps in case law experience -- The European Directive and its clones -- Conclusion -- Appendix: A selection of US infection cases -- Part III Services and the consumer -- 7 Services of general interest and European private law -- Privatisation and new tasks for private law -- Public law principles through private law? -- Services of general interest - the core area -- Some basic arguments -- A principle of legitimate expectations -- Arguments from corporate responsibility -- The basic rules of the marketplace -- Summary -- The principle of non-discrimination and access to service -- The principle of provision of services and the disadvantaged citizens -- 8 The new Financial Ombudsman Service in the United Kingdom: has the second generation got it right? -- Introduction -- Ombudsmen in the financial services sector -- Civil justice reforms -- The Financial Ombudsman Service -- Constitution and structure of the FOS -- Accessibility -- Internal procedures as a gateway for complainants -- FOS procedure -- Possible impact of the Article 6 provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights -- Jurisdiction -- Operating standards -- Remedies.

Quality control activity -- Conclusions -- 9 Economic appraisals of rulemaking in the new society: why, how, and what does it mean? The challenge for the consumer -- Introduction -- The reasons for the introduction of CBA into the process of lawmaking -- The place of CBA in the lawmaking process -- Cost-benefit analysis - what is it? -- What is CBA? -- How did CBA develop? -- Undertaking a CBA -- Difficulty in predicting policy impacts -- Identification of costs and benefits -- Valuation of costs and benefits -- Attitudes to risk -- Value judgments -- Distributive justice -- Cost-effectiveness -- CBA in the FSA -- Difficulty in predicting policy impacts -- Identification of costs and benefits -- Valuation of costs and benefits -- Attitudes to risk -- Value judgments -- Distributive justice -- Cost-effectiveness -- An analysis of the CBA accompanying the proposal to regulate mortgage advice -- The background to the analysis -- Approach -- Direct costs -- Compliance costs -- Quality -- Quantity and variety -- Competition -- Critique -- Source of policy options -- Impact analysis -- Comparison of costs with benefits -- Final outcome -- Did CBA add value? -- The potential impact of CBA in the future for consumers of financial services -- How consumers might try to ensure their voices are better heard in the process -- Conclusion (well, so what?) -- Part IV Consumer bankruptcy law -- 10 Access to the discharge in Canadian bankruptcy law and the new role of surplus income: a historical perspective -- Introduction -- The 1997 amendments: the new debtor responsibility Act? -- The demand for reform -- Bill C-5 and the new surplus income regime -- Rehabilitation reconsidered -- The discharge in Canadian bankruptcy law: a historical perspective -- The Pre-Confederation era -- The Insolvent Act 1869 -- The Insolvent Act of 1875 and repeal -- The impact of repeal.

The renewed debate and the Bankruptcy Act of 1919 -- Conclusion -- 11 The death of consumer bankruptcy in the United States -- Introduction -- Prologue: traditional consumer bankruptcy in the United States (and the push for reform) -- Traditional consumer bankruptcy in the United States -- Origins of the means test: the consumer credit industry's push for reform -- Consumer bankruptcy after the fall -- The means test -- Means testing under the Reform Bill -- The presumption of abuse -- Income -- Expense deductions -- Living expenses: IRS Collection Standards -- Secured debts -- Priority claims -- Miscellaneous favoured expenses -- Rebuttal of the presumption of abuse -- Safe harbour -- Sanctions -- Creating entry barriers -- Deteriorating discharge -- Secured creditor windfalls -- Exemption bonanza and other privileges for the rich -- Conclusion -- Part V Procedure and process issues -- 12 Privatisation and power: dispute resolution for the Internet -- Introduction -- Three worlds of privatised dispute resolution -- Domain name disputes -- The problem -- The system -- Trusted systems and digital rights management technology -- Mandatory binding arbitration of consumer disputes -- Consequences of privatised dispute resolution -- Shift of procedural advantage -- ICANN domain name disputes -- Trusted systems -- Due process gaps and repeat player advantages -- Access to justice -- Adequate discovery -- Collective action -- Meaningful hearings -- Unbiased decision-makers -- Process transparency -- Loss of government control over law -- Conclusion -- 13 Armageddon through aggregation? The use and abuse of class actions in international dispute resolution -- Introduction -- Are international class actions necessary? -- Are class actions necessary to motivate responsible behaviour? -- Incompatibility of contingent fee principles.

Are class actions compatible with civil law jurisprudence?.