Consumer law and the economic crisis – Cristina Poncibò

The economic and financial crisis is leading to a renewed focus on consumer and investor protection and the new regulatory environment is often characterised by attempts to design innovative regulatory techniques and policy-making approaches both in the EU and the US.

The article point outs two of the most relevant lessons that could be learnt from the economic crisis and it starts by posing two questions. The first question is descriptive: does the current regulatory framework in EU Law profile the ‘real’ consumer? The second question is normative and focuses primarily on consumer contracts: does the informational model, consisting in the mandatory provision of pre-contractual information to the consumer, still represent an adequate tool for consumer protection?

The working paper argues that, first, there is still a gap between the Law and the Science of Consumer Behaviour, so that, in the end, the ‘real’ consumer is not effectively protected. Second and also important  the information disclosure strategies adopted in the most recent EU provisions (e.g. Consumer Rights  Directive and CESL) are dated and probably ineffective.

Doubtless, in the aftermath the economic crisis, the ‘myth’ of informational consumer protection, mostly based on information disclosure, has been seriously challenged: policy-makers are now called to reform their strategies.

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Prospettive per l’Inclusione dei Cittadini di Paesi Terzi nell’Unione Europea. Alcune Tendenze Contrastanti tra Cittadinanza dell’Unione e Cittadinanza Nazionale – Francesca Strumia

This article explores the way in which rules on national citizenship and rights connected to Union citizenship, respectively, contribute to affect the status of third country nationals in the European Union, and their prospects for inclusion. In particular it looks at how the rights of third country nationals are treated in relevant cases on European citizenship decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), and it considers recent reforms in nationality legislation in a selection of member States. The article highlights two contrasting trends, respectively, in EU case law on the relation between Union citizenship, nationality and the rights of third country nationals, and in recent member States’ legislation on admission of immigrants and access to nationality. CJEU holdings encourage the application of objective criteria for deciding on inclusion within, and exclusion from, the legal space of the member States, and tend to identify an autonomous space of inclusion and exclusion, regardless of nationality, around Union citizenship. The result is a subtle pressure towards the ripening of a Europe-wide notion of belonging. National legislation, on the other hand, leaves a measure of discretion to national authorities entrusted with deciding on inclusion and exclusion, and confirms the monopoly of the nation in inclusion and exclusion decisions. The result is a pressure to close the member States’ membership spaces around their respective individual concepts of belonging. These opposing trends reveal a dissonance between the role of Union citizenship and that of national citizenship, when it comes to the prospects of inclusion of third country nationals. Composing this dissonance requires reconsidering the weight and scope of legal categories relevant to inclusion, such as citizenship, residence, and presence.

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Softening Divides through Legitimacy: The Case of E.U. Citizenship – Francesca Strumia

This paper is an excerpt from a larger project I am working on, in which I explore the socialization power of European citizenship through the lenses of literature on diffusion of norms in international relations and international law, borrowing from this literature the notions of cultural match, legitimacy and acculturation. In this work, I explore the possibility that while the community of the European citizens is one based on difference, the interaction of citizens at the European level as members of a community of law, and their exposure to the scripts of coexistence as citizens might lead in the long run to the internalization, on the part of the citizens, of a sense of “groupness” consistent with the norm of European citizenship. In this sense, I argue that elements of institutional design making supranational citizenship visible for its holders and highlighting the legitimacy of their participation as citizens at the European level might help a process of acculturation.

This paper presented at Racism, Immigration and Citizenship Conference Johns Hopkins University, April 2009

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