Tuesday 27 August 2013

EU consumer law in the age of the image


What views on consumers inform the development of the law in the EU? Professor Stephen Weatherill and Dr Dorota Leczykiewicz are starting a research project on this theme, the results of which are planned to be presented at a conference in Oxford next year. The project is summarised as follows:

'The purpose of the project is to invite experts in EU, consumer and competition law to explore the different "images" of the consumer in different contexts of EU law. The project’s theme is inspired by the persisting questions about how many visions of the consumer there are in EU law, and whether they are consistent and sincere, or merely instrumental to the achievement of other goals. Are the different types of "consumer" we find scattered across EU law apt reflection of rich diversity or do they create a troublingly chaotic landscape? Discussing these questions is particularly timely a few years after the Treaty of Lisbon, which reformed Union objectives to include a "social market economy" and vested the Charter of Fundamental Rights, elevating "consumer protection" to the status of a fundamental right, with a binding force. The project will culminate with a conference to be held at St Anne’s College, Oxford, on 27-28 March 2014.'

For more information, please refer to the University of Oxford's website.