Consumer Protection and the Uniform Commercial Code

The Symposium\u27s authors include participants in the drafting process, some of whom defend it and its products and some of whom are more critical, as well as nonparticipants who can view the consumer proposals with more detachment. Most of the authors, as well as the law review\u27s editors, have had to struggle with the task of evaluating moving targets, as draft upon draft in each project produced changes large and small

Options in Consumer Bankruptcy: An American Perspective

In both the United States and Canada, a rapid increase in personal bankruptcies has led to demands for stricter laws to force more repayment by consumer debtors. Canada has already taken this step, while the United States may soon do so in response to the counterfactual claim that the problem is debtors with means using bankruptcy as a method of financial planning. The author suggests that the real problem in both countries, however, is an increase in the ranks of the over-indebted. Bankruptcy is a symptom, signalling to creditors the need to reform themselves. The author concludes that if creditors persist in aggressive marketing to high-risk debtors, effective legal and social reforms should include better disclosure, financial education in secondary schools and, perhaps, even direct regulation of risky creditor practices

Mortgaging Human Capital: Federally Funded Subprime Higher Education

The for-profit higher education sector, primarily funded by federal student aid dollars, produces both the highest debts and defaults and lowest completion rates for its students. In response, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has promulgated the Gainful Employment Rule to require for-profit colleges and universities to meet either repayment or debt-to-income benchmarks to remain eligible to receive federal Higher Education Act funding. This Article describes the business model of the career colleges and their rapid growth over the last decade, the history of proprietary school regulation, the limited remedies for overindebtedness of former students, and the tests imposed by the DOE rule. Although weakened after a massive lobbying effort, the Gainful Employment Rule as promulgated still promises to put some of the worst performing for-profit programs out of the business of operating on a federal dole. This Article compares the bubbles in for-profit higher education and subprime mortgages, both of which involved federal encouragement of high risk-taking to achieve the American Dream. It concludes by questioning the federal policy of relying on for-profit schools to meet national higher education goals

When Your Refrigerator Orders Groceries Online and Your Car Dials 911 After an Accident: Do We Really Need New Law for the World of Smart Goods?

In this Essay, I argue that the law of goods does not need change in many of its elements despite current technological change. Furthermore, I argue that it makes sense to treat copies of freestanding software as goods even if they are in electronic files. One body of law should govern transactions in hardware and software, including refrigerators, cars, personal computers and their operating systems, manufacturing and medical equipment, as well as freestanding software itself. These products are all properly classified as goods. For these products, Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C.) successfully addresses issues of contract formation, warranties, performance standards, and damages