Consumer Law and Policy: Seminar
Fall term, Block J
W 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Mr. Roger Bertling and Ms. Kimberly Breger
2 classroom credits LAW-91645A
2, 3, or 4 optional clinical credits LAW-91645C Fall
or 2 optional clinical credits LAW-91645C Winter
Consumer law affects everyone - from the poorest to the wealthiest. This class will survey consumer law, from the history of the consumer movement to the new frontiers in an increasingly globalized market for consumer lending products. In addition to introducing the relevant law, the course will cover current themes and policy debates with respect to consumer finance. Specific attention will be paid to an analysis of the dynamic changes in the residential mortgage market. We will discuss the effectiveness of various regulations intended to combat lending abuses in the face of the enormous growth, and now partial collapse, of the secondary mortgage market. We will examine and debate tensions that arise in the consumer law context-- from the interplay between federal and state regulatory schemes, maintaining access to credit in a nontransparent lending regime, and the costs/benefits of home ownership against the backdrop of a sometimes unsophisticated consumer base with few other affordable options. The class will also address issues of racial discrimination in lending, debt collection practices, credit reporting, consumer arbitration, and the tensions that exist where consumer rights intersect with our electronic information society.
The class will require a final paper (15 pages) on a research topic with a practical or policy component in an area of concern for consumers.
Students may -- and are encouraged to -- elect a practice component, or clinical, in conjunction with the course. Clinical placements will be in the Predatory Lending/Consumer Protection Clinic at the WilmerHale Legal Services Center (for a clinic description visit www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/lsc/ clinics/predatory.htm). Students electing the clinical component, which can be done in either the fall or winter term, will be automatically enrolled in the concurrent two-credit Predatory Lending/Consumer Protection Clinical Workshop (LAW-44795A).
Students who want to participate in the optional clinical must enroll through clinical registration. Please refer to the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs (www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical) for clinical course registration dates and early add/drop deadlines.