The Uniform Commercial Code Drafting Process: Will Articles 2, 2B and 9 Be Fair to Consumers?

Part II examines the structural barriers to full and effective consideration of the impact of revisions to the UCC on consumers. Part I identifies some of the changes in law being made in the drafts of Articles 2, 2B, and 9 and the possible impacts on consumers because of those changes. Part IV describes the types of nonuniform amendments state legislatures have made to Articles 3 and 4

Before the Grand Rethinking: Five Things to Do Today with Payments Law and Ten Principles to Guide New Payments Products and New Payments Law

This article describes the incomplete consumer protection and illogical results now occurring from the application of current federal consumer protection law to a broad variety of types of payments products used by individuals that were developed long after the relevant federal laws were written. The lag in payments law has real impacts on consumers. The adverse consequences include the mistaken assumption of rights that do not exist,; individuals losing of control of their checking accounts; and that the consumer\u27s rights may depend upon the choices made by merchants, processors, and banks. Surprisingly, the most fiscally dangerous payment choice for an individual—the credit card—is the one with the best consumer protections. Individuals who carry a credit card balance, however, face a much higher cost to obtain those protections than those with the economic cushion to pay off their balances every month. This article proposes a baseline level of consumer protection for all existing and new payments mechanisms used by individuals. This includes credit and debit cards, checks, non-card payment devices such as the cell phone, and emerging payments methods such as placing a charge on a services account bill, such as a phone bill. To create this protection, the article proposes specific statutory changes to the Federal Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the Fair Credit Billing Act, and the Expedited Funds Availability Act, plus expanded use of financial institution regulators\u27 power to restrict unfair and deceptive trade practices. The article further offers a set of ten principles by which payments providers, legislators, regulators, and consumers should judge new payments mechanisms

Before the Grand Rethinking: Five Things to Do Today with Payments Law and Ten Principles to Guide New Payments Products and New Payments Law

This article describes the incomplete consumer protection and illogical results now occurring from the application of current federal consumer protection law to a broad variety of types of payments products used by individuals that were developed long after the relevant federal laws were written. The lag in payments law has real impacts on consumers. The adverse consequences include the mistaken assumption of rights that do not exist,; individuals losing of control of their checking accounts; and that the consumer\u27s rights may depend upon the choices made by merchants, processors, and banks. Surprisingly, the most fiscally dangerous payment choice for an individual—the credit card—is the one with the best consumer protections. Individuals who carry a credit card balance, however, face a much higher cost to obtain those protections than those with the economic cushion to pay off their balances every month. This article proposes a baseline level of consumer protection for all existing and new payments mechanisms used by individuals. This includes credit and debit cards, checks, non-card payment devices such as the cell phone, and emerging payments methods such as placing a charge on a services account bill, such as a phone bill. To create this protection, the article proposes specific statutory changes to the Federal Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the Fair Credit Billing Act, and the Expedited Funds Availability Act, plus expanded use of financial institution regulators\u27 power to restrict unfair and deceptive trade practices. The article further offers a set of ten principles by which payments providers, legislators, regulators, and consumers should judge new payments mechanisms

Greater Representation for California Consumers–Fluid Recovery, Consumer Trust Funds, and Representative Actions

California statutes provide elaborate protections for consumers from abuse by deceptive, unlawful, and unfair business practices. However, in practice, consumers do not receive optimal protection. Law enforcement agencies often have inadequate resources, and the private bar is hampered by the futility of small individual claims and the complexity and expense of class actions. This Article details early use of the class action procedure in consumer protection litigation and outlines problems with the procedure, such as the expense and impracticality of notice provisions and distributing judgments. The authors explore the California courts\u27 recent development of procedures for class actions and representative actions that should encourage the private bar to pursue consumer protection litigation. These procedures include fluid recovery, consumer trust funds, and representative actions. Fluid recovery and consumer trust funds are mechanisms for distributing judgments to large numbers of consumers when all injured parties are difficult to identify or contact. Representative actions permit representation of consumers injured by sharp business practices without having to obtain the consent of consumers and without having to show that each consumer was aware of the practice. The authors conclude that these emerging procedures, underutilized currently by the private bar, should encourage practitioners to bring consumer protection litigation and ultimately enhance protection for California consumers

Alcohol dependence: international policy implications for prison populations

BACKGROUND: In light of the emphasis on drug abuse, this study explored the relative prevalence of substance use disorders among United Kingdom (UK) prison inmates in the context of findings from a general inmate population in the United States (US). The lead author of the report conducted a structured diagnostic interview with 155 new admissions to one of two prisons in the UK using the CAAPE (Comprehensive Addiction And Psychological Evaluation), a structured diagnostic interview, to ensure consistent assessments. The US sample consisted of 6,881 male inmates in a state prison system evaluated with an automated version of the SUDDS-IV (Substance Use Disorder Diagnostic Schedule-IV) interview. RESULTS: Alcohol dependence emerged as the most prevalent substance use disorder in both UK prisons and in the US sample. Relative frequencies of abuse and dependence for alcohol and other drugs revealed that dependence on a given substance was more prevalent than abuse ad defined by the current diagnostic criteria. CONCLUSION: Despite the emphasis on drugs in correctional populations, alcohol dependence appears to be the most prominent substance use disorder among the incarcerated in both the US and UK and must be considered in developing treatment programs and policy priorities

The role of oscillatory brain activity in object processing and figure-ground segmentation in human vision

The perception of an object as a single entity within a visual scene requires that its features are bound together and segregated from the background and/or other objects. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to assess the hypothesis that coherent percepts may arise from the synchronized high frequency (gamma) activity between neurons that code features of the same object. We also assessed the role of low frequency (alpha, beta) activity in object processing. The target stimulus (i.e. object) was a small patch of a concentric grating of 3. c/°, viewed eccentrically. The background stimulus was either a blank field or a concentric grating of 3. c/° periodicity, viewed centrally. With patterned backgrounds, the target stimulus emerged - through rotation about its own centre - as a circular subsection of the background. Data were acquired using a 275-channel whole-head MEG system and analyzed using Synthetic Aperture Magnetometry (SAM), which allows one to generate images of task-related cortical oscillatory power changes within specific frequency bands. Significant oscillatory activity across a broad range of frequencies was evident at the V1/V2 border, and subsequent analyses were based on a virtual electrode at this location. When the target was presented in isolation, we observed that: (i) contralateral stimulation yielded a sustained power increase in gamma activity; and (ii) both contra- and ipsilateral stimulation yielded near identical transient power changes in alpha (and beta) activity. When the target was presented against a patterned background, we observed that: (i) contralateral stimulation yielded an increase in high-gamma (> 55. Hz) power together with a decrease in low-gamma (40-55. Hz) power; and (ii) both contra- and ipsilateral stimulation yielded a transient decrease in alpha (and beta) activity, though the reduction tended to be greatest for contralateral stimulation. The opposing power changes across different regions of the gamma spectrum with 'figure/ground' stimulation suggest a possible dual role for gamma rhythms in visual object coding, and provide general support of the binding-by-synchronization hypothesis. As the power changes in alpha and beta activity were largely independent of the spatial location of the target, however, we conclude that their role in object processing may relate principally to changes in visual attention. © 2010 Elsevier B.V