ABSTRACT
The paper examines the conceptual structure and historical roots of consumer protection in Louisiana civil law, treating it as a particular instance of a mixed system emerging at the crossroads of European civil law traditions and US market-oriented policy. Although Louisiana lacks a comprehensive consumer protection system, its elements have emerged through what the paper terms ‘presence through absence’ – embedded indirectly within classical contract doctrines and later reinforced by statutory intervention. By situating Louisiana within twentieth-century transformations driven by mass markets, information asymmetries, and structural client-firm inequalities, the paper traces how traditional civil law tools (redhibition, lesion, good faith, and principles of adhesion contracts) provided early, albeit fragmented, recognition of consumer vulnerability. These doctrines were subsequently complemented by modern regulatory instruments, including, eg, the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, consumer credit legislation, and sector-specific statutes. The resulting hybrid framework uniquely synthesizes civil law principles of fairness and equity with US-style regulatory market controls. As a civil law jurisdiction rooted in the European tradition, yet not influenced by European Union law, Louisiana thus became a unique laboratory for observing how mixed legal systems can generate distinctive consumer protection models through the interaction of codified civil law and public regulatory policy.
Grochowski, Mateusz, The Phantom Consumer in Louisiana Civil Law (February 10, 2026). Forthcoming in a volume commemorating the Bicentennial of the Louisiana Civil Code (Vernon V Palmer ed).
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