Responsive Regulation and Comparative Consumer Product Safety
This paper, an edited and footnoted transcript of a presentation at a research Centre of Excellence at Hokkaido University, looks at the influence of “responsive regulation” theory on the large-scale “Australian Consumer Law” reforms enacted in 2010. It outlines some frameworks developed for a chapter on “Product Safety Regulation” in the Handbook of Research on International Consumer Law (Elgar, 2010), considering ways in which the government (primarily through public regulation), courts (primarily through product liability law) and markets can create incentives to supply safe consumer goods. These frameworks also permit better cross-jurisdictional comparisons, with this paper highlighting major developments also in Japan, Europe, the United States, and international trade law. The paper ends by highlighting implications for other areas of contemporary consumer law, especially consumer credit. As in many countries nowadays regarding consumer goods, including belatedly Australia, responsive regulation theory suggests that there should be scope to add a duty on suppliers of credit to disclose serious problems or risks afflicting their consumer borrowers.
Consumer law reform in Australia: Contemporary and Comparative Constructive Criticism
Nation-wide consumer law reform has finally emerged on Australia's legislative agenda. This article first introduces some broader context, advocating a comparative perspective that allows Australia to re-harmonise based on emerging global standards. Part II focuses on additional duties to notify regulators of serious product-related accidents. Part III presents a comparative analysis of new rules governing unfair terms for consumer contracts. Part IV responds to the Review of Statutory Implied Conditions and Warranties. Part V concludes with a response to the parallel reform underway for a National Consumer Credit Protection Act.
Consumer Politics in Postwar Japan: The Institutional Boundaries of Citizen Activism
Part 1: Japanese Consumer Advocacy from Theoretical, Comparative, and Historical Perspectives 1. Toward a Framework for the Study of Consumer Advocacy2. Consumer Advocacy in the United States and Britain3. The Politics of an Emerging Consumer Movement: The Occupation Period5. The Post-1968 Consumer Protection Policymaking System and the Consumer Movement's Response4. Consumer Politics Under Early One-Party Dominance: 1955 to the Late 1960s7. The Right to Safety: The Movement to Oppose the Deregulation of Food Additives6. The Right to Choose: The Movement to Amend the Antimonopoly Law9. The Right to Be Heard: The Past, Present, and Future of the Japanese Consumer Movement8. The Right to Redress: The Movement to Enact a Product Liability LawIntroductionPart 2: Case Studies: The Impact of Japanese Consumer Advocacy on Policymaking