The transformation of consumers’ procedural protection in times of crisis – protection in mortgage enforcement proceedings?

Law, Stephanie (2017) The transformation of consumers’ procedural protection in times of crisis – protection in mortgage enforcement proceedings? Public and Private Justice, Transformations of Civil Procedure, Inter-University Centre , Dubrovnik, Croatia. 29 May - 02 Jun 2017. pp. 283-307 .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Over the past decade, the CJEU has – via preliminary references from national courts, identifying (possible) obstacles in national rules of civil procedure – rendered a line of judgments in an effort to establish procedural safeguards for the enforcement and protection of EU consumer rights. These references concern increasingly significant consumer regulatory needs including those which pertain to general consumer contracting ((online) consumer sales and services) and those which have come to the fore in the post-2008 crisis context, concerning (largely but not exclusively) consumer credit. The paper firstly provides an overview of key (procedural) problems identified both pre- and post-crisis across the Member States. It then examines the national and CJEU case law and critically analyses the development of one procedural mechanism: the power and subsequent obligation on national judges to examine compliance with EU consumer protection ex officio. The paper assesses the reach, limits and problematic dimensions of this mechanism, in ensuring the effective and equivalent protection of consumer rights and evaluates the shift in judicial cultures to which it gives rise, including for example in Spain, and particularly where the nature of adjudication is typically adversarial.

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