How Dispute Resolution System Design Matters: An Organizational Analysis of Dispute Resolution Structures and Consumer Lemon Laws

This study demonstrates how the structure of dispute resolution shapes the extent to which managerial and business values influence the meaning and implementation of consumer protection law, and consequently, the extent to which repeat players are advantaged. My analysis draws from, links, and contributes to two literatures that examine the relationship between organizational governance structures and law: neo‐institutional studies of law and organizations and socio‐legal studies of repeat players' advantages in disputing. Specifically, I compare an instance where powerful state consumer protection laws are resolved in private dispute resolution forums funded by automobile manufacturers but operated by independent third‐party organizations (California) with one where consumer disputes are resolved in public alternative dispute resolution processes run and administered by the state (Vermont). Through in‐depth interviews and participant observation in the training programs that dispute resolution arbitrators undergo in each state, I show how different dispute resolution structures operating in California and Vermont give different meanings to substantially similar lemon laws. Although my data do not allow me to establish a causal relationship, they strongly suggest that the form of the dispute resolution structure, and how business and state actors construct the meaning of lemon laws through these structures, have critical implications for the effectiveness of consumer protection laws for consumers.     

The Privatization of Public Legal Rights: How Manufacturers Construct the Meaning of Consumer Law

This article demonstrates how the content and meaning of California's consumer protection laws were shaped by automobile manufacturers, the very group these laws were designed to regulate. My analysis draws on and links two literatures that examine the relationship between law and organizations but often overlook one another: political science studies of how businesses influence public legal institutions, and neo-institutional sociology studies of how organizations shape law within their organizational field. By integrating these literatures, I develop an "institutional-political" theory that demonstrates how organizations' construction of law and compliance within an organizational field shapes the meaning of law among legislators and judges. This study examines case law and more than 35 years of California legislative history concerning its consumer warranty laws. Using institutional and political analysis, I show how auto manufacturers, who were initially subject to powerful consumer protection laws, weakened the impact of these laws by creating dispute resolution venues. The legislature and courts subsequently incorporated private dispute resolution venues into statutes and court decisions and made consumer rights and remedies largely contingent on consumers first using manufacturer-sponsored venues. Organizational venue creation resulted in public legal rights being redefined and controlled by private organizations.     

Rule‐Intermediaries in Action: How State and Business Stakeholders Influence the Meaning of Consumer Rights in Regulatory Governance Arrangements

The boundaries between public and private actors are increasingly blurred via regulatory governance arrangements and the contracting out of rights enforcement to private organizations. Regulation and governance scholars have not gained enough empirical leverage on how state actors, private organizations, and civil society groups influence the meaning of legal rules in regulatory governance arrangements that they participate in. Drawing from participant observation at consumer law conferences and interviews with stakeholders, my empirical data suggest that consumer rights and, in fact, consumer law, mean different things to different stakeholders tasked with adjudicating consumer rights. Rights afforded consumers who purchase warranties are now largely contingent on first using alternative dispute resolution structures, some created and operated by private organizations with soft state oversight and others run by stakeholders but with greater state oversight and involvement. Using new institutional sociology and regulatory governance theories, I find that stakeholders involved in overseeing and administering these dispute resolution systems filter the meaning of consumer rights through competing business and consumer logics. Because consumer laws mean different things to stakeholders tasked with adjudicating consumer rights, two different rights regimes simultaneously exist in this field. I conclude that how rule‐intermediaries administering private and state‐run dispute resolution systems conceptualize what consumer laws mean in action may have implications for regulatory governance and more broadly, consumers' access to justice.     

The limits of contract law harmonization

Contract law harmonization in the European Union has met with some significant but limited success. This Essay explores some of the psychological and political forces that can complicate or even hinder law reform efforts. Even when there is a general institutional drive for law reform, as there is in the EU, scarce reform resources force attention to be focused on salient issues, while a status quo bias in individual member states by government officials can provide a braking inertia regarding nonsalient legal reforms. This braking influence can be seized upon and enhanced by interest groups that oppose reforms, especially where there is an alternative to proposed law reforms for private entities. In the case of contract law harmonization, contract doctrine that is not focused on providing consumer protections remain nonsalient, commercial entities can solve the confusion of diverse laws by choosing their own, and interest groups in nations whose laws and dispute resolution forums are commonly chosen will oppose harmonization. Thus, the current state of affairs may prove relatively difficult to alter.     

Public‐Private Arbitration and the Public Interest under English Law

Together with the increase in the number of public‐private contracts, recent years have seen a marked proliferation in public‐private arbitrations. This article explores the public interest implications which may arise in such arbitrations and examines how public‐private arbitration is treated under English law. We argue that, due to the lack of a developed administrative law sphere in England and the historical development of arbitration as an exclusively private mode of dispute resolution, the current legal framework of arbitration in England has developed around the private law paradigm of a commercial dispute involving private actors. This private law paradigm results in a conceptual and legal void in respect of how public interest is accounted for, and protected, in arbitrations involving public bodies under English law. Therefore, we suggest that English arbitration law needs to be amended to adequately protect the private interest in public‐private arbitration.     

电子商务中知识产权纠纷的可仲裁性

现代社会中电子商务活动日渐普遍,电子商务中知识产权的纠纷也逐渐增多。具体到知识产权纷争的解决途径,除司法审判和行政查处外,仲裁将成为解决知识产权纠纷的第三条有效途径。电子商务知识产权纠纷的可仲裁性,不但有程序法和实体法的依据,也有现实社会发展的紧迫需要。电子商务中涉及私权处分的知识产权纠纷,通过传统的书面仲裁协议或者在网络上明示并经交易对方认可的仲裁条款,都将赋予仲裁机关管辖权,使得该知识产权纠纷具有可仲裁性。在新的历史条件下,仲裁机构应当与时俱进地加以改革。     

MEDIATION AND THE PROCESS OF FAMILY LAW REFORM

The family law system needs fixing. The real question is how to go about fixing it. The concept of mediation and its process should be vital in the rethinking and restructuring of the system. This article discusses how mediation can be used in policy-making to get all the stakeholders in the family law system to creatively and non-judgmentally work toward reform. The author contends that increased legal access and speedy low-cost dispute resolution should be at the top of the reform agenda. Courts and professional offices are valued for their consumer-friendliness, stressing nonadversarial settings and cleint education. Unbundling is urged to be not only accepted but also promoted as a practice to meet the legal needs of families. The article concludes with the argument that effective reform should incorporate the principles of mediation, and the reform process should take advantage of models of consumer friendliness from both the public and private sectors .     

金融消费者知情权保护的困境解析与出路探索

知情权是金融消费者进行金融消费的前提,也是金融消费者实现其他权益的基础。但是,当今金融市场日益复杂化、专业化、多样化,存在严重的信息不对称现象,金融消费者在金融市场交易中处于弱势地位,其知情权经常受到各种侵害,由此引发了诸多金融机构侵犯金融消费者权益的事件。然而,目前我国在维护金融消费者知情权的法律保护方面存在着诸多缺陷,因此有必要借鉴发达国家的经验,进行相关金融立法、行政监管、司法救济等方面的改革,切实维护金融消费者权益。     

国际私法的法典化进程

当我国正在紧锣密鼓地起草和制定国际私法法典时,借鉴先进的立法经验是必要的。总结已有的立法经验,在国际私法的立法过程中,需要把握好一些最为基本、最为重要的问题,其中,辨析传统与现代理论的发展趋向、坚持保护私人利益原则和实现法律适用的确定性、稳定性和可预测性、协调冲突正义和实质正义等对立价值、选取使用管辖权选择规则与内容或结果为导向的法律规则和如何保证法律选择争议的正当解决就是一些核心内容,这最终决定了立法的基本体系和具体内容。     

Jurisprudential Foundation of the Alogithmic Enforcement and Regulation of Law in an Intelligent Society: Taking the Automated Copyright Infringement Monitoring of the Online Content Sharing Platform as an Example

As cyber-space has become increasingly important for human activities, and intelligent algorithms are widely used in cyber-space, we are rapidly entering an intelligent society. Now, algorithmic enforcement and regulations of law have posed non-negligible issues. As algorithmic enforcement of copyright law was introduced earlier than that of other laws, it provides a helpful observation perspective. The worldwide practice of copyright enforcement has gradually departed from traditional “safe harbor provisions, ” and has emphasized prior examination of shared contents uploaded by Internet service providers’ (ISPs) users through the following three dimensions: automated infringement detection algorithms voluntarily used by the ISPs, heavier judicial liability of ISPs, and updated legislation principles. Thus, innovations and development have stimulated new mechanisms and regulations for enforcing copyright in cyberspace. Algorithmic enforcement of copyright law in an intelligent society is essential and meaningful. The copyright regulation mechanisms should be guided by jurisprudential principles and concepts featuring the principles of (a) legitimate and efficient flow of information, (b) balance between and among algorithmic power, public power and private rights, (c) boosting the sharing economy and the new gig economy, and (d) promoting social governance philosophy of “coconstruction, co-governance and sharing.” These principles are meaningful for creation of a new mechanism for balancing interests between ISPs and their users, and for introducing the pluralistic co-governance mechanism beyond simply practicing “filtering obligations.” In addition, these principles are significant for improving a certification with credibility of copyright status and ownership, and for advancing a mechanism for online collegiate-panel dispute resolution.     

论消费者保护视角下缺陷产品召回制度的完善

为确保企业履行产品安全保障义务,美国创设了缺陷产品召回制度,以促使企业承担社会责任、维护消费者利益与公共安全.美国的缺陷产品召回立法完善,召回主体和范围明确,在保护消费者人身和财产安全方面发挥着积极的作用.我国新修改的《消费者权益保护法》从保护消费者权益的角度,明确了产品召回与消费者权益保护的关系,但我国的产品召回机制,从立法到实施都具有相当的局限性,影响其功能的正常发挥.为保护消费者的利益,有必要检讨我国缺陷产品召回之规定.作为对现实的回应,应统一产品召回立法,明确产品召回主体的范围,扩大产品召回对象的范围,并在产品召回程序中完善消费者的参与,进而实现保护消费者权益、维护社会公共安全和稳定经济秩序之目的.     

纠纷及其解决:原因与路径的另一种思考

纠纷解决方能维护社会秩序之安定,而纠纷原因之探究则为纠纷解决研究之起点。基于对当代中国建构纠纷解决机制的宏观认知,尽管纠纷的发生往往与利益有关,立足于法律的视角,虽属于权利义务的现实分配之纷争,但从更深层次的意义来看,这种纷争或许与当事人之间的信息不对称存在着千丝万缕的联系。因而,重建当事人之间的信赖关系应是彻底解决纠纷、恢复当事人之间私法秩序的重要基础。     

试论《食品安全法》中关于消费者权益保护的欠缺

消费者是食品链中最大的群体。《食品安全法》的立法之本是为了保护消费者的安全,但是《食品安全法》在消费者权益保护方面却存在很多问题,比如,食品安全概念的狭隘,某些法条难以实施,与其它法律之间互相矛盾等。本文分析了《食品安全法》关于消费者权益保护的欠缺之处,并提出了修改建议。食品药品监督管理总局的成立及食品安全监管部门职能的调整改变了以前分段管理的模式,《食品安全法》要做相应的修改。希望在《食品安全法》的修订过程中可以加强对消费者权益的保护,增加该法的实用性。     

Detention and treatment down under: human rights and mental health laws in Australia and New Zealand

Mental health law reform in recent decades has drawn on the international human rights movement. The entering into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on May 3 2008 has been hailed by some as signalling a new era in relation to how domestic mental health laws should be reformed. Both Australia and New Zealand have ratified the CRPD and Australia has acceded to its Optional Protocol. New Zealand and the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria have statutory bills of rights which have an interpretive effect, but are unable to render other statutes invalid. Drawing on the results of interviews conducted with fifty-two representatives of consumer and carer organisations, lawyers, and mental health professionals across Australia and New Zealand, this paper examines the current thinking on human rights and mental health laws in these countries and outlines what changes, if any, may be brought to domestic legislation in light of the Convention.     

“大数据杀熟”行为政府治理路径探讨

“大数据杀熟”行为严重损害了消费者权益。相对于传统商业“杀熟”行为,“大数据杀熟”行为更隐蔽,消费者维权更艰难。这种利用算法应用技术损害消费者权益的行为严重违背商业伦理,不仅关乎消费者个人权益,更会影响公共利益,仅凭市场调节难以纠正,需要通过法律进行救济。政府应在遵循辅助性原则的前提下,通过算法应用技术备案、建立“政府-社会”合作规制等制度,用新制度规制新技术,更好地发挥政府在治理“大数据杀熟”行为过程中的作用,保护消费者权益和社会公共利益。     

信用的权利化及其民法保护

在我国，信用权利化的提出有着特定的立法背景。通过对信用法律调整历史沿革的考察可以发现，信用的内涵是不断发展变化的，从最初关注主体在伦理道德方面信守承诺的情况，扩展到主体的综合经济能力。现代民法对信用的调整以社会对主体的信用评价为核心，信用作为社会对主体综合经济能力的评价，已非主体性要素，且已从“内在化的伦理价值”外化为“客体化的人格要素”，成为一种具有典型性、独立性的人格要素。因此，有必要也能够将信用权利化为具体的人格权，以确保民事主体获得客观公正的信用评价。     

RESEARCH ON DIVERSIFIED FINANCIAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION MECHANISMS IN CHINA

After the US Lehman mini-bonds crisis in 2008, global countries have been exploring the financial consumer protection legislation. This paper mainly focuses on the status quo and problems of China’s current financial mechanism, as well as how to construct a financial dispute resolution system and financial ombudsman system (FOS), how to employ mediation, arbitration and other various dispute resolution mechanisms to deal with financial disputes.     

同业监督法律制度建构:正当性、属性及其边界

同业监督克服了产品信息不对称障碍,对于保护消费者合法权益、维护市场竞争秩序、提高产品质量水平有着独特作用,这是建构产品质量同业监督法律制度的正当性基础。我国法确立了产品质量国家监督、消费者监督和社会监督三元监督体系。无论是从宪法渊源看还是从法律渊源看,我国并未明确肯定同业监督,亦未明确禁止同业监督,而是将其蕴含在社会监督之中。同业监督权不属于国家公权,亦不属于企业私权,而是属于社会性权利。同业监督权极易被滥用并异化为商业诋毁手段,从而危害市场竞争秩序。我国要通过法律制度创新明确同业监督的合法性,通过修改我国《产品质量法》、我国《反不正当竞争法》、我国《消费者权益保护法》构建同业监督规范体系。     

反垄断法视野中消费者利益保护问题的新思考

世界上大多数国家或地区的反垄断法都把保护消费者利益作为自身的立法目的之一,但是在传统理论和实践中,消费者利益的概念基本上是经济学意义上的消费者福利;反垄断法对消费者的保护被认为是保护竞争产生的间接结果,因此只是一种间接保护。固然应该重视并发挥反垄断法间接保护消费者利益的功能,但也同样应该重视反垄断法理论和实践中出现的加强对消费者利益直接保护的趋势;对消费者利益的直接保护认识,为探讨消费者获得损害赔偿救济奠定了基础。对消费者利益保护理论与实践的转变问题进行新思考。     

Consumer Redress Legislation: Simplifying or Subverting the Law of Contract

The growth of statutory consumer protection regimes in modern commercial societies has the potential profoundly to disrupt the private law landscape. Such schemes aim to increase access to justice for consumers by offering simplified and clear suites of rights and corresponding remedies. In so doing, however, they affect core areas of private law rights and remedies, and may come to undermine or replace existing contractual principles and policies. The result could be an incoherent system of private law with different principles and rules applying to commercial and consumer transactions. Coherence in the law requires that lawyers abandon their traditional ‘oil and water’ attitudes to legislative schemes and confront directly the interactions between these two bodies of law. This paper engages in that enquiry by considering the relationship between the relatively new consumer redress provisions in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and general law principles.