European Law Commons^™

Comparative Cause And Effect: Consumer Insolvency And The Eroding Social Safety Net, 14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 563 (2008), Jason Kilborn

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This paper explores the connection between social welfare reform and the adoption of consumer debt relief law in Europe. Health care expenses and unemployment are significant contributors to overindebtedness in Europe, and outside the primary sources, one finds suggestions to the effect that the unraveling social safety net was a major contributing factor in the adoption of consumer debt relief laws in Europe in the 1990s. This paper critically analyzes this notion by tracking the recent scaling back of social assistance programs in Sweden, Germany, and France, and comparing that movement with the adoption of consumer insolvency regimes in those …