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Full-Text Articles in Law
Remedy Realities In Business-To-Consumer Contracting, Amy J. Schmitz
Remedy Realities In Business-To-Consumer Contracting, Amy J. Schmitz
Faculty Publications
Professor Jean Braucher greatly contributed to the exploration of consumer and contract law by questioning how the law operates in the real world and highlighting the importance of “law in action.” In recognition of that contribution, this Article focuses on law in action with respect to consumers’ quest to obtain remedies regarding their business-to-consumers (“B2C”) contracts. Currently, consumers often have no practical recourse with respect to B2C purchase problems due to the complexity, cost, and inconvenience of the processes for obtaining remedies. Accordingly, stated legal rights become meaningless for individuals living in the real world. This Article, therefore, explores access …
Embracing Unconscionability’S Safety Net Function, Amy J. Schmitz
Embracing Unconscionability’S Safety Net Function, Amy J. Schmitz
Faculty Publications
Despite courts' and commentators' denial of morality and focus on efficiency in contract law, fairness and flexibility have remained the bedrocks of the unconscionability doctrine. This Article therefore departs from the popular formalist critiques of unconscionability that urge for the doctrine's demise or constraint based on claims that its flexibility and lack of clear definition threaten efficiency in contract law. Contrary to this formalist trend, this Article proposes that unconscionability is necessarily flexible and contextual in order to serve its historical and philosophical function of protecting core human values. Unconscionability is not frivolous gloss on classical contract law. Instead, it …
Curing Consumer Warranty Woes Through Regulated Arbitration, Amy J. Schmitz
Curing Consumer Warranty Woes Through Regulated Arbitration, Amy J. Schmitz
Faculty Publications
This article proposes legislative procedural reforms accounting for the realities of consumer arbitration that have threatened and denied consumers' access to remedies for companies' violations of public, or statutory, warranty remedies under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (MMWA). Furthermore, the Article proposes to clarify and expand the MMWA's current dispute resolution template in order to resolve judicial disagreement regarding the template's application and foster beneficial use of finding arbitration. Accordingly, this is not a call to ban all pre-dispute arbitration clauses in consumer contracts, but is instead an invitation for more politically palatable reforms that preserve both companies' savings and consumers' …
Consideration Of 'Contracting Culture' In Enforcing Arbitration Provisions, Amy J. Schmitz
Consideration Of 'Contracting Culture' In Enforcing Arbitration Provisions, Amy J. Schmitz
Faculty Publications
The Federal Arbitration Act mandates strict and uniform enforcement of standardized pre-dispute arbitration provisions. This may not be proper, however, in light of the importance of context with respect to these provisions. This Article therefore seeks to remind courts of the importance of exchange context by proposing a "contracting culture" continuum for enforcing these arbitration provisions that acknowledges the impacts of these provisions in a particular communal context. "Contracting culture" encompasses economic and non-economic relational factors that impact dispute resolution agreements, but go beyond common conceptions of "culture" focused on ethnicity, nationality, or religion. It also explores beyond the primary …
Refreshing Contractual Analysis Of Adr Agreements By Curing Bipolar Avoidance Of Modern Common Law, Amy J. Schmitz
Refreshing Contractual Analysis Of Adr Agreements By Curing Bipolar Avoidance Of Modern Common Law, Amy J. Schmitz
Faculty Publications
Law governing enforcement of ADR agreement not governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) has been uncertain, and often aimless. This Article therefore calls for clarification of this law, through development of a modern contractual approach for enforcing these non-FAA ADR procedures. Although courts may look to the FAA as a resource for evaluating and developing an enforcement approach, they also should employ modern contract and remedy tools that are more adaptive than the Act's summary enforcement because it allow courts to consider contextual, relational, and equitable factors when determining application of specific enforcement remedies. This allows courts to apply …