Category Archives: Unconscionability and Unfair Terms
Edward Iacobucci, ‘Trebilcock and trade-offs’
ABSTRACT Through discussion of a sample of his work, this article identifies a key theme in Michael Trebilcock’s astonishingly deep and broad body of scholarship: trade-offs matter. Trebilcock’s analysis of a House of Lords case, Macaulay v Schroeder Publishing, demonstrates the perils of one-sided economic analysis: the court ignored trade-offs in determining that a contract […]
Chris Bevan, ‘Extending the Reach of the “Etridge Protocol” to So-called “Hybrid” Scenarios: Waller-Edwards v One Savings Bank Plc’
ABSTRACT In Waller-Edwards v One Savings Bank Plc, the Supreme Court addressed, for the first time, the significant question of whether banks were put on constructive notice of potential undue influence in so-called ‘hybrid’ scenarios. ‘Hybrid’ scenarios are those in which loan monies are advanced to a couple partly for their joint benefit and partly […]
Brittany Farr, ‘The Race Case in Contracts’
ABSTRACT This Article develops a new framework for thinking about the place of race in Contracts. It argues that culture and context work in tandem in the form of ‘cultural scripts’ to weave racial associations into texts where race is not explicitly identified. This suggests that the impact and influence of race in Contracts might […]
Weiwei Luo, ‘Beyond State/Market: Usury Law in Late-Ming China’
ABSTRACT This article examines the interdependent relationship between the state, law, and market in early modern China. Focusing on usury statutes, it analyzes how the Chinese state in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries employed its legal framework to regulate a burgeoning money economy. The study underscores the critical role of law as an instrument of […]
Raul Madden, ‘Revitalising unconscionable dealing in English law through interjurisdictional teaching’
ABSTRACT The doctrine of unconscionable dealing has faded into obscurity in England while recently enjoying significant activity and attention elsewhere across the common law world. Strengthening that doctrine might provide an avenue through which courts can address the proliferation throughout English society of non-negotiable and degrading contractual terms tendered by powerful entities to people who […]
‘On the assignability of consumer claims under credit contracts: CJEU in Zwrotybankowe.pl (C‑80/24)’
As consumer law remains under-enforced, it becomes all too common for consumers to assign their claims to third-party claim management companies, which typically operate on a contingency basis and take a percentage of the amounts successfully recovered. In Case C‑80/24, the consumer assigned their claim against a bank to Zwrotybankowe.pl, one such claim management company, […]
‘(Informed) Consent to Dispute Resolution Agreements’: Special issue of the German Law Journal
Party Autonomy Then and Now (Symeon C Symeonides) Consent and Dispute Resolution Clauses (Nancy S Kim) Reflexive Contract Law: Party Autonomy and the Constitutional Right to a Remedy (Gralf-Peter Calliess) Policing Consumer Contract Terms under US and EU Law: A Comparative Analysis of the Directive 93/13/EEC on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts and the Restatement […]
‘Clause for concern: the penalty rule, default interest and extortion’
Default interest, in a loan agreement, at a rate of 4% compounded monthly, was not extortionate given the legitimate interests at play and so was not an unenforceable penalty, according to the High Court. This, third judgment, follows an earlier High Court judgment which had found the converse: the 4% default interest rate was a […]
‘“Consumer” Protection for Small Businesses’
Rachel G Ngo Ntomp, ‘The Small Business Dilemma’, 81 Washington and Lee Law Review 1939 (2025). Although often eclipsed by the prominence of large companies, small businesses play a critical role in helping to grow our economy. Their size, market footprint, resources, experience, and sophistication levels are as varied as the goods and services they […]
Szymon Osmola, ‘Improving the Quality of Consumer Choice: Unfair Terms Directive Revisited’
ABSTRACT This article investigates how the Unfair Terms Directive (UTD) attempts to improve the quality of consumer choice through establishing the extended choice mechanism. The article consists of three parts: analytical, interpretive, and doctrinal. The analytical part explains how the ex post control of contract terms provides consumers with an opportunity to rethink their original, […]