Consumer law is a significant area of contemporary market regulation. This area of law raises practical questions about the everyday consumption of goods and services, theoretical issues about the role of government regulation and contrasting visions of markets. Furthermore, consumer law provides an opportunity to analyse different forms of regulation in contemporary societies such as legal rules, codes of practice, administrative regulation and attempts to harness market incentives. This module addresses the regulation of consumer markets. This module is aimed at students who wish to have an understanding of substantive law, policies and institutional framework concerning the regulation of consumer markets.
Total study hours: 300
Contact hours: 20
Private study hours: 280
All undergraduate Law programmes including Joint Honours.
Main assessment methods
Essay 1 (2,000 words) – 50%
Essay 2 (2,000 words) – 50%
Reassessment methods
The module will be reassessed by like-for-like reassessment of failed individual components of assessment.
• Geraint Howells, Christian Twigg-Flesner, Thomas Wilhelmsson (eds), Rethinking EU Consumer Law (Routledge 2017)
• Geraint Howells, Iain Ramsay and Thomas Wilhelmsson (eds), Handbook of Research on International Consumer Law (2nd Edition,
Edward Elgar 2018)
• Dorota Leczykiewicz, Stephen Weatherill (eds), The Images of the Consumer in EU Law: Legislation, Free Movement and Competition
Law (Hart 2016)
• Iain Ramsay, Consumer Law and Policy: Text Cases and Materials on Regulating Consumer Markets (3rd edn, Hart Publishing 2012)
• Colin Scott and Julia Black, Cranston's Consumers and the Law (3rd edn, Cambridge 2000)
• Stephen Weatherill, EU Consumer Law and Policy (2nd edn, Edward Elgar 2013)
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate knowledge of the relevant common law, statutory and non-statutory sources in the area of consumer law and to research
and apply that knowledge to concrete fact situations.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the standard policy arguments and frameworks of consumer law, and to apply and critique them in
concrete policy problems.
3. Critically appreciate the role of consumer law and policy within the "new regulatory state" in the UK.
4. Demonstrate an awareness of the different forms of legal regulation of consumer market transactions (e.g. private law, administrative
regulation, "soft law", harnessing market incentives), and their strengths and weaknesses.
5. Assess claims about the progressive potential of consumer law and its relationship to broader social policies such as addressing social
exclusion.
6. Demonstrate an appreciation of the scope of EU consumer law and policy and its effects on UK law.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module, students will be able to:
1. Effectively locate primary and secondary legal and policy sources and to apply them to specific policy and legal issues.
2. Critically evaluate an area of law both doctrinally and in terms of its socio-economic consequences.
3. Recognise potential alternative solutions to particular problems and make a reasoned choice between them.
4. Formulate and sustain a complex argument, supporting it with appropriate evidence.
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