15th conference of the International Association of Consumer Law

Dear readers, the first draft of the program for the 15th conference of the International Association of Consumer Law has been published on the conference website. As you can see, we will have a very interesting (and a very busy!) schedule. The program may still change since some scheduled speakers may give up their places to people on the waiting list (yes, there is a waiting list of speakers). For now, it can already give you an idea of what sessions to expect and encourage you to register. Registration is available on this website. If you want to sponsor a conference session, a conference event or the whole conference (why not?) - let us know!

15th conference of the International Association of Consumer Law

FINAL CALL

Tomorrow is the deadline for submitting your abstracts if you wish to present at the 15th conference of the International Association of Consumer Law in Amsterdam next year. Of course, we will be happy to welcome you whether you decide to present or not, but just in case you wanted to share your research/ experiences with other attendees, please see this as a gentle reminder to notify us of your intentions. Details about submissions.

International Association of Consumer Law 2015 conference

PRESENTING

This post is just to remind our readers that there is only one month left to submit an abstract if you would like to present your work during our conference 29 June - 1 July 2015 in Amsterdam. We will make sure that the 15th International Association of Consumer Law conference will be informative and fun. While it's theme is "Virtues and Consumer Law" we understand it broadly and submissions in any areas related to consumer protection (e.g. consumer health, enforcement of consumer protection, consumer finances) are encouraged. We are planning three days packed with simultaneous sessions on various consumer protection issues so there will be a chance to discuss anything you may be interested in. The deadline for submissions is November 15th, 2014.

PARTICIPATION

For anyone who is not interested in presenting their research but would like to participate in the conference, the registration is already open. You may register through this website.

FEE WAIVER

Additionally, we will have a few scholarships available for participants from Asia, Africa and Latin America under the age of 35. We will award the scholarships at our discretion, based on the quality of the abstracts sent before the call for papers' deadline. Selected scholarship students will receive a fee waiver. Please add information that you are applying for this scholarship when you submit your abstract. 

New IACL website

The International Association of Consumer Law has a new website - http://www.iacl.net.au/. Even though the old one is still functional it has stopped being updated some time ago so I refer everyone to the new one.

Call for papers - 15th conference of the International Association of Consumer Law

Call for Papers – 15^th conference of the International Association of Consumer Law

Dates: Monday, 29 June 2015 – Wednesday, 1 July 2015

Location: Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands)

Submission deadline: 15 November 2014

The 15^th conference of the International Association of Consumer law is organized on the theme of “Virtues and Consumer Law”. We kindly invite participants from all around the world to submit an abstract of a paper they would like to present during the conference addressing one of the virtues and consumer protection issues.

The conference will run from approximately 10:00 AM on Monday, June 29, 2015 to 4:30 PM on Wednesday, July 1, 2015. It will be held at the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam.

The goal of this conference is to provide a forum where leading international scholars, practitioners, representatives of consumer organizations, public authorities and business can gather together to present and discuss issues relevant to consumer protection in many sectors (financial law, health law, information law, sales law, etc.) and from various perspectives. We welcome both theoretical and empirical submissions.

TOPICS: While papers on all topics related to consumer protection are welcome, we especially encourage submissions related to the following topic areas:

• Self-realization (in tourism, air travel or entertainment sector); 
• Faith (in public and/or private enforcement of consumer law, in collective redress);
• Curiosity (in e-commerce, telecommunication sector or on innovation and consumer law);
• Compassion (towards vulnerable consumers, in medicine or in clinical trials);
• Frugality (in the banking sector or in financial contracts);
• Fairness (against unfair commercial practices and/or misleading advertising, against unfair contract terms, in protection of SMEs, through good faith and fair dealing); 
• Trust (through data protection, on privacy and security issues, through product safety and/or product liability, from behavioural economics perspective);
• Forgiveness (through mediation or ADR); 
• Self-development (through education, through services, through consumer sale contracts);
• Hope (against overindebtness, through clean-slate doctrine, by way of insurance).

ABSTRACT: All interested should submit an abstract (500 words maximum) of a paper they would like to present and a CV to this address: iacl-fdr@uva.nl by November 15, 2014. All submissions will be reviewed by the organizers of the conference. All participants will be notified of the organizers’ decisions by January, 15, 2015. The timely notification should allow participants to benefit from often announced in January various reductions on flights to Amsterdam (for example, with the Dutch airlines, KLM).

FURTHER DETAILS: The chosen papers will be presented during concurrent workshop sessions with the presentation time being (strictly) limited to max 15 minutes. There will be short discussion time guaranteed in each concurrent workshop session. Authors of best papers will be presented with a possibility of publishing them in a volume, however, all authors will be ultimately free to publish their work in other venues, if they choose so. Please note that ALL participants (including presenters of the chosen papers for each concurrent workshops sessions) are expected to timely register according to the Registration policy as set on our website, which involves timely and full payment of the registration fee. Participants are warmly invited to attend all days of the conference, including the social program (drinks after the closing of the conference on both Monday and Tuesday; two conference dinners, on Monday and Tuesday respectively; canal boat ride).

15th International Association of Consumer Law Conference in Amsterdam: 29 June - 1 July 2015

This is the first one of many announcements to come about a conference that I'm privileged to co-organise next year, together with my colleagues: Marco Loos and Sacha Tamboer. The 15th International Association of Consumer Law Conference will take place at the University of Amsterdam next year - book the dates: 29 June - 1 July 2015. The theme is: "Virtues and consumer law".

The theme encompasses, but is not limited to considerations of: FAIRNESS and consumer protection (e.g. unfair commercial practices, unfair contract terms, good faith and fair dealing, protection of micro-enterprises), FRUGALITY and consumer protection (e.g. financial services, banking, loans), HOPE and consumer protection (overindebtedness and clean slate-doctrine), CURIOSITY and consumer protection (e.g. influence of new technologies and innovation on consumer protection), COMPASSION and consumer protection (e.g. vulnerability of consumers), SELF-REALIZATION and SELF-DEVELOPMENT and consumer protection (consumer protection and entertainment services, tourism, education and training), FORGIVENESS and consumer protection (mediation, ADR and private and public enforcement of consumer protection legislation), TRUST and RESPECT and consumer protection (data protection, privacy and security and consumer protection), FAITH and consumer protection (the role of the principle of pacta sunt servanda in consumer law, ADR mechanisms), etc.

On this blog I will keep you, dear readers, up to date with the developments regarding the conference. A link to a conference website will follow shortly (link to IACL's website), and more details incl. on the call for papers will be announced in due time. For now: we are looking forward to welcoming you in Amsterdam next year!

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