Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Introduction: conceptualising unconscionability in Europe
- PART I Conceptualising unconscionability
- PART II Conceptualising unconscionability in financial transactions
- 8 Usury and the judicial regulation of financial transactions in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England
- 9 Protection of the vulnerable in financial transactions – what the common law vitiating factors can do for you
- 10 Borrowers as consumers: new notions of unconscionability for domestic borrowers
- 11 Conceptualising and understanding fairness: lessons from and for financial services
- 12 Open the box: an exploration of the Financial Services Authority's model of fairness in consumer financial transactions
- 13 Conceptualising unconscionability in the context of risky financial transactions: how to converge public and private law approaches?
- 14 Conceptualising unconscionability in the post-Soviet era: the Lithuanian case of legal transplants
- 15 Bank loan contracts in Polish law: the legal position of the borrower
- 16 Financial contracts and ‘junk title’ purchases: a matter of (in)correct information
- 17 Kickback payments under MiFID: substantive or procedural standard of unconscionability?
- 18 Unfairness under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
- Conclusions
- Index
- References
13 - Conceptualising unconscionability in the context of risky financial transactions: how to converge public and private law approaches?
from PART II - Conceptualising unconscionability in financial transactions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2010
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Introduction: conceptualising unconscionability in Europe
- PART I Conceptualising unconscionability
- PART II Conceptualising unconscionability in financial transactions
- 8 Usury and the judicial regulation of financial transactions in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England
- 9 Protection of the vulnerable in financial transactions – what the common law vitiating factors can do for you
- 10 Borrowers as consumers: new notions of unconscionability for domestic borrowers
- 11 Conceptualising and understanding fairness: lessons from and for financial services
- 12 Open the box: an exploration of the Financial Services Authority's model of fairness in consumer financial transactions
- 13 Conceptualising unconscionability in the context of risky financial transactions: how to converge public and private law approaches?
- 14 Conceptualising unconscionability in the post-Soviet era: the Lithuanian case of legal transplants
- 15 Bank loan contracts in Polish law: the legal position of the borrower
- 16 Financial contracts and ‘junk title’ purchases: a matter of (in)correct information
- 17 Kickback payments under MiFID: substantive or procedural standard of unconscionability?
- 18 Unfairness under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
- Conclusions
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Financial services have become increasingly important in the EU. While such services are essential for the everyday life of EU citizens and for the EU economy at large, some of them entail very high risks which may particularly affect the vulnerable in financial transactions. Thus, for example, the provision of investment services by the bank may lead to huge financial losses beyond the client's ability to pay. By the same token, the provision of a business loan for one family member on the condition that another family member stand as a surety for the whole debt may result in financial ruin for the latter. The inequality of bargaining power and information asymmetry between the parties, coupled with huge risks involved in many financial transactions, give rise to the question of how and to what extent the vulnerable in such transactions must be protected.
Private laws of all European legal systems have developed concepts which aim to protect the weaker party against unconscionable bargains. Concepts such as good morals (gute Sitten) in German law, good faith (redelijkheid en billijkheid) and mistake (dwaling) in Dutch law or undue influence and unconscionability in English law may in certain circumstances relieve the weaker party from his or her onerous contractual obligations. There is a general agreement that the vulnerable should be protected against unconscionable transactions in private law.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Unconscionability in European Private Financial TransactionsProtecting the Vulnerable, pp. 246 - 274Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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