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Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Law

Foreword, Frank R. Kennedy May 1966

Foreword, Frank R. Kennedy

Michigan Law Review

As will be evident by the time this symposium on consumer protection appears in print, not all the proposals that have been made on behalf of the consumer will pass this year; some, perhaps, will never be enacted in anything like their present form. However, both opponents and proponents of this spate of legislative proposals should recognize the timeliness and importance of the discussions presented in this issue of the Michigan Law Review.


The Contractual Aspect Of Consumer Protection: Recent Developments In The Law Of Sales Warranties, William C. Pelster May 1966

The Contractual Aspect Of Consumer Protection: Recent Developments In The Law Of Sales Warranties, William C. Pelster

Michigan Law Review

As might have been expected, the courts have not confined their efforts in updating the law of products liability to fostering innovations in that segment dealing with warranties. The struggle to impose strict tort liability upon a manufacturer for harm caused by his defective products has made significant advances and is continuing: However, the citadel has yet to be taken. Indeed, even the California Supreme Court, which may be considered the leading proponent of this strict tort theory, has limited its availability so that only those seeking redress for harm to person or property may invoke the doctrine; thus, a …


Disclosure Of Finance Charges: A Rationale, Robert L. Jordan, William D. Warren May 1966

Disclosure Of Finance Charges: A Rationale, Robert L. Jordan, William D. Warren

Michigan Law Review

One wonders whether in all of the talk generated about disclosure in the past few years the purposes of disclosing finance charges to consumers have not been somewhat obscured. This article is an attempt to examine the subject of disclosure from the standpoint of the function it performs in consumer credit transactions. We shall discuss the various methods of computing finance charges in the different segments of the finance industry, the functions of disclosure of finance charges and the feasibility of using different computational methods in each category of consumer transactions. The problems involved in requiring the disclosure of finance …


Government And The Consumer, Richard J. Barber May 1966

Government And The Consumer, Richard J. Barber

Michigan Law Review

This article takes up four major topics. First, the principal characteristics of governmental action with respect to consumer protection are reviewed, with emphasis on developments during the past thirty years. Second, the traditional pleas for consumer protection are examined with a view toward determining the inadequacies in governmental action. Third, the problems of the consumer are studied in the context of oligopolistic industrial markets in which nonprice competition accentuates the place of advertising and severely restricts the dissemination of factual information that is essential to enlightened purchase decisions. Fourth, the ingredients of a meaningful consumer protection program are outlined and …


Industrial Self-Regulation And The Public Interest, Harper W. Boyd Jr., Henry Claycamp May 1966

Industrial Self-Regulation And The Public Interest, Harper W. Boyd Jr., Henry Claycamp

Michigan Law Review

As the affluence of the American society grows, a concern about such matters as health, education, and welfare has also become more apparent. Some concern derives from technological breakthroughs which require control, such as the development of aircraft for mass transportation. In other cases, increased recognition of serious threats to public health and safety has led various groups of aroused citizens to advocate governmental control. Today, growing numbers of individuals and organizations believe that the consumer's health and safety are not being adequately protected in at least two areas-cigarettes and automobiles. Thus, the following discussion is directed to the vital …


Can Federal Legislation Affecting Consumers' Economic Interests Be Enacted?, Philip A. Hart May 1966

Can Federal Legislation Affecting Consumers' Economic Interests Be Enacted?, Philip A. Hart

Michigan Law Review

Assume there is a definite need for legislation which centers on the economic-not the health or safety-interests of consumers. Can such a bill be enacted? If history, as Francis Bacon claims, does indeed "make a man wise," then a wise man would not even advocate such a bill, no matter how persuasive the evidence. Although government exists to protect the public interest, a look at history shows that the public--or the consumer-generally has not fared as well as many other special interests.


Federal Trade Commission Regulation Of Advertising, Earl W. Kintner May 1966

Federal Trade Commission Regulation Of Advertising, Earl W. Kintner

Michigan Law Review

The success of an economic democracy, no less than that of a political democracy, depends upon informed, intelligent choice. Thus, the widespread dissemination of information with respect to alternatives is imperative; otherwise, choices would be made in a vacuum and would become meaningless, if not plainly capricious. However, there is no paucity of information in our contemporary society; the so-called "mass media" ensure that. Indeed, modern man can hardly escape, even if he should so desire, the constant bombardment of information from television, radio, newspapers, billboards, and other sources.


Representing The Consumer Interest In The Federal Government, Esther Peterson May 1966

Representing The Consumer Interest In The Federal Government, Esther Peterson

Michigan Law Review

In 1964 President Johnson established both the President's Committee on Consumer Interests and the position of Special Assistant to the President for Consumer Affairs. The President declared that he was "taking action to assure that the .voice of the consumer will be loud, clear, uncompromising, and effective in the highest councils of the Federal Government." Never before had the consumer been expressly represented on so high a level. The Committee on Consumer Interests was given a unique task. "The value of our society," the President said, "cannot be measured in the mass, but in the condition of each individual." The …


Products Liability--Some Observations About Allocation Of Risks, Page Keeton May 1966

Products Liability--Some Observations About Allocation Of Risks, Page Keeton

Michigan Law Review

Virtually all of the activities of mankind involve the use of some product. Consequently, nearly all losses in the nature of physical damage to persons or things, and a great deal of the economic losses flowing from inferior or unfit products, are factually caused by characteristics or conditions of products, or at least occur during the use of products. Therefore, when fault, in the sense in which fault has been used in the Anglo-American law of torts (a usage which frequently results in the imposition of liability without personal fault), is abandoned as a basis for shifting or allocating losses, …


Products Liability--The Expansion Of Fraud, Negligence, And Strict Tort Liability, John A. Sebert Jr. May 1966

Products Liability--The Expansion Of Fraud, Negligence, And Strict Tort Liability, John A. Sebert Jr.

Michigan Law Review

While judicial acceptance of this concept of strict tort liability has been proceeding apace, far less dramatic but equally significant developments have been occurring with respect to both negligence and fraud liability. The possibility of recovering for a seller's misrepresentations concerning his product has been enhanced by a plaintiff-oriented judicial redefinition of two elements of a cause of action for fraud: defendant's knowledge of the falsity of his representation and plaintiff's reliance upon the deception. At the same time, negligence liability has often come to resemble liability without fault as courts continue to deemphasize, as a prerequisite to the application …


Products Liability Based Upon Violation Of Statutory Standards, Joseph H. Ballway Jr. May 1966

Products Liability Based Upon Violation Of Statutory Standards, Joseph H. Ballway Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Regulatory enactments controlling production and distribution can give rise in several different ways to civil liability on behalf of persons injured by non-conforming merchandise. For instance, if a statute codifies existing common-law rules of negligence, its effect is merely to place the weight of legislative authority behind ordinary negligence principles. Since an injured party's recovery under such a provision still depends largely upon his proving in the traditional manner that a defendant failed to exercise due care, this kind of statute merits no further discussion. On the other hand, if particular legislation expressly states that a violator may be subjected …


Antitrust And The Consumer Interest, Kenneth S. Carlston, James M. Treece Mar 1966

Antitrust And The Consumer Interest, Kenneth S. Carlston, James M. Treece

Michigan Law Review

Public control of business in the United States has proceeded, in most sectors of the economy, on the assumption that free, open competition in the market should be the primary regulator. It is felt that consumer welfare will be maximized by such an organization of the economy. Courts, governmental agencies, and, to a certain extent, private agencies have performed the role of ensuring that free markets are not displaced by other, less desirable alternatives.