Principles of the Global Consumer Law Forum:

• Consumers are domestic and international traders.

• The rule of law for consumer traders must necessarily be developed to foster the continued growth of the virtual marketplace. Effective development can best happen when there is collaboration between governments, the private sector, inter-governmental organizations, consumer interest groups, bar associations, and the academic community.

• Systems (for rule of law and conflict resolution) established within the virtual marketplace will transcend to domestic economic development and stability, and the creation of new markets.

• The development of redress systems is a necessary precursor to cross-border economic growth.

• Governments and the private sector must collaborate to provide effective, trustworthy and fair redress systems for consumers engaged in global e-commerce.

• A soft law for international consumer contracts will encourage cross-border consumer trade and can be a model for implementation in domestic legal systems.

• Centralized dissemination of legal information can foster further commonalities and understanding in the continued development of consumer protection law and redress systems.

Programs of the Global Consumer Law Forum:

In furtherance of the objective to create fair and practical redress systems for global electronic and mobile commerce transactions (B2C and B2B), the Global Consumer Law Forum is collaborating with UNCITRAL this March 29-30 to present the colloquium:

A Fresh Look at Online Dispute Resolution System
(ODR) and Global E-Commerce: Toward a Practical and Fair Redress
System for the 21st Century Trader (Consumer and Merchant)

The conference will be held in Vienna, Austria, during the same period as the Vis International Arbitration Moot.

Click here to view the Program

Click here to Register for the Conference

Coming Soon: Participants of the ADR Project and related projects

Due to the rapid technological developments impacting the global movement of information and goods, as well as their world-wide impact on individuals, consumers are no longer restricted by regional or national boundaries to acquire goods needed (or desired) for their everyday lives. On the one hand, a corporate-driven global infrastructure accounting for the logistics of the transport of goods and payment is being developed to support the transnational movement of goods. However, on the other hand, there is a hole in the international legal infrastructure governing the respective rights and obligations of merchants and consumers in such transactions. This void is compounded by the multitude of approaches to consumer protection law by countries and regions around the world, ultimately causing a relative stagnation in cross-border consumer transactions.

The paper Achieving Optimal Use of Harmonization Techniques in an Increasingly Interrelated 21^st Century World - Consumer Sales: Moving the EU Harmonization Process to a Global Plane, 41 UCC L.J. 51 (2008) co-authored by Professor Louis F. Del Duca (Penn State Dickinson School of Law), Professor Albert H. Kritzer (Institute of International Commercial Law, Pace Law School) and Daniel Nagel (University of Heidelberg) was first presented at the conference of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law in August 2008 (in Bamberg, Germany), to address this legal void. The paper, proposing the creation of a set of global principles for international consumer contracts, is the catalyst for the Forum's work toward the creation of a general set of principles that could be applied to govern such international consumer transactions. Commercial sellers and consumer buyers could on a voluntary basis incorporate these principles into their agreement without the need for enactment of the principles as hard law.

Coming Soon: Participants of the Global Principles Project

• Global Consumer Law Forum Advisory Board

• Affiliates of the Global Consumer Law Forum

• Database of National and Regional Consumer Protection Laws

• Bibliography of International Consumer Law Materials