Magister Legum - LLM / This paper analyses how the Zimbabwean economic history has led to the perception and attitude of the population towards the financial industry. It has been blighted by extremes to the extent that in 2008 the Zimbabwe economy had one of the highest hyperinflation rate in the world.1 Pettinger sums up the hyperinflation journey of Zimbabwe as having begun in the 1990s shortly after the disastrous land reform.2 This is where private farms were grabbed from landowners and re-allocated to mostly peasant farmers who had no technical know-how in farming. It was also a time when the country was involved in an unbudgeted and unsolicited second Congo civil war necessitating that the Government increase salaries to cater for soldiers and other officials assigned to the Congo.3 Earlier on the government had buckled under pressure from former war liberators (war veterans) and paid out unbudgeted bonuses.4

This dissertation considers the possible influence of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 on the common law obligations of the seller vis-à-vis: 1) risk and duty to take care, 2) eviction and 3) defects. Before one can have a look at the influence of new legislation on the common law, it is necessary to first go backward to look at where it all started in order to understand any possible influence. In the first chapter there is therefore a historical overview of the common law in general as well as the law of contract. Reference is also made to the Roman law perspective as well as the Roman concept of contract; the Roman-Dutch law perspective as well as the Roman-Dutch concept of contract; and the South African law perspective as well as the South African concept of contract. In chapter 2 the common law and the law of contract is discussed in general with reference to concepts such as ownership, law of obligation, and the emptio venditio. Chapter 3 deals with the essence of this dissertation as we look at the common law obligations of the seller and in specific the risk and duty of the seller to take care of the thing sold until it is handed over to the buyer (factors that influence the duty to take care, passing of risk, and passing of risk in sales by way of consignment); the seller‟s warranty against eviction (including the obligations of the buyer when there is a threat of possible eviction); and the seller‟s warranty against latent defects (ex lege warranties, ex contractu warranties, the actio empti and the aedilitian actions). In chapter 4 there is a very short discussion on the influence of the Constitution of South Africa, 1996 in general as well as specifically on the law of contract. Chapter 5 deals with the influence of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 in general, specifically on the law of contract (why an Act to protect the interests of consumers?) and then the influence on risk and the seller‟s duty to take care of the thing sold (the consumer‟s right to return goods; the supplier‟s obligation to draw potential risk of an unusual character or that the consumer could not reasonably be expected to be aware of or that could result in serious injury or death to the attention of the consumer), the influence on the seller‟s warranty against eviction (the consumer‟s right to assume that the supplier is entitled to sell the goods; sections 44 and 51) and the influence on the seller‟s warranty against latent defects (disclosure of reconditioned or grey market goods; quality of goods). The conclusion follows in chapter 6. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Mercantile Law / unrestricted

INTERNET BUSINESS TRANSACTION WITH AN INTERNATIONAL ELEMENT: CONSUMER PROTECTION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION Abstract This thesis focuses on the legal aspects of consumer protection within the European Union when concluding a contract with an international element on the Internet. The motivation for the thesis is to address the new legal challenges which the matter creates. In case of contracts negotiated at a distance, there is no possibility of verification of the contracting party or goods or services themselves. Such situation increases the risk of abuse of the position of the stronger party. Furthermore, the unclear definition of borders in cross-border online purchasing complicates the matter of private international law on jurisdiction and applicable law. This thesis aims to describe and analyse the specific rules for consumer protection on the Internet within the European Union in order to inform stakeholders about the current state of the law in this area. In particular, the thesis deals with three issues: what kind of protection is provided to consumers in cross-border online purchase within the European Union; which court has jurisdiction over a dispute arising from consumer contract with an international element entered into on the Internet; and how the applicable law for these contracts is...

This dissertation studies three topics in financial economics. In the first chapter, "ESG Investing in Emerging Markets: Betting on Firm Fundamentals or Riding Investor Preferences?", we examine the relation between firms' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices and the pricing of corporate bonds in emerging markets, which is an important yet understudied market for ESG-related issues. Firms with different ESG scores can have different costs of capital, either because ESG scores help forecast future cash flows -- the "fundamental" channel -- or because investors have non-pecuniary preferences for high-ESG-score assets -- the "preference" channel. We identify the existence of a preference channel with a natural experiment -- the historical opening of the Chinese onshore bond market -- that leads to an increase in the proportion of international investors, who are more ESG-conscious. Consistent with theory, we find that the bond yield of companies with high ESG scores decreases more than that of companies with low ESG scores. By focusing on firms that also have bonds traded in the offshore market, which, as opposed to the onshore market, does not experience any change in regulation, we can control for issuer-time fixed effects in a triple difference design, hence reducing considerably the influence of the fundamental channel. In the second chapter, "Watch what they do, not what they say: Estimating regulatory costs from revealed preferences", we show that distortion in the size distribution of banks around regulatory thresholds can be used to identify costs of bank regulation. We build a structural model in which banks can strategically bunch their assets below regulatory thresholds to avoid regulations. The resulting distortion in the size distribution of banks reveals the magnitude of regulatory costs. Using U.S. bank data, we estimate the regulatory costs imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act. Although the estimated regulatory costs are substantial, they are significantly lower than those in self-reported estimates by banks. In the third chapter, "Fuzzy Bunching", we introduce a new fuzzy bunching approach that is robust to noise. The existing bunching approach identifies the extent of bunching from a sharp spike in the probability density function. In many finance settings, however, the sharp spike could be diffused by data noise. The key idea behind our fuzzy bunching estimator is to identify bunching from the area of a bulge in the cumulative distribution function. The fuzzy bunching approach also avoids density estimation, which makes it easy to implement in sparse data. We provide the theoretical foundation of this approach and illustrate the advantages by using simulated and real data.

La Protección al Consumidor en Perú a la fecha se reconoce a nivel Constitucional y es desarrollada en el Código de Protección y Defensa del Consumidor. Por otro lado, se reconoce como Política Pública, la garantía de mecanismos eficaces y expeditivos para la solución de conflictos entre proveedores y consumidores, para lo que se promueve el uso de mecanismos alternativos de solución de conflictos. La modificación introducida por el Decreto Legislativo N° 1308, privilegia también las soluciones a través del empleo de mecanismos alternativos de solución conflictos, reconociendo que los mismos pueden poner fin al procedimiento hasta antes de la emisión de la resolución de última instancia. Esto nos da un panorama favorable para la propuesta planteada en el presente trabajo de investigación. Actualmente se tiene una carga procedimental creciente en protección al consumidor, por lo que se hace necesario una reforma en el sistema, a fin de asegurar el acceso a la tutela efectiva y a obtener pronunciamientos fundados en derecho y oportunos. El presente trabajo plantea una modificación a nivel de requisitos de admisibilidad de los procedimientos iniciados de oficio por denuncia de parte, estableciendo como uno de ellos, agotar la búsqueda de solución del problema presentado a través del uso obligatorio de mecanismos alternativos de solución de conflictos. Ya existe una plataforma instalada en Indecopi, que es gratuita, lo que garantiza el acceso a la justicia y no genera ninguna traba. Con la modificación planteada, se logrará reducir la cantidad de procedimientos y los tiempos de tramitación. / Today, the consumer protection is recognized at Constitutional level and is developed through the Consumer Protection and Defense Code. On the other hand, the guarantee of efficient and expeditious mechanisms for the solution of conflicts between suppliers and consumers is recognized as a Public Policy, for which it promotes the use of alternative mechanisms for the solution of conflicts. Thus, the amendment introduced by Legislative Decree No. 1308, also privileges solutions through the use of alternative mechanisms of dispute resolution, recognizing that they can put an end to a procedure until the issuance of the resolution of last instance. All this gives us a favorable panorama for the proposal raised in the present research work. Currently the burden in consumer protection procedures, is increasing, so it is necessary to reform the system in order to ensure access to effective protection and to obtain pronouncements based on law and timely delivered. What the present work proposes is a modification at the level of requirements of admissibility of the procedures initiated by complaint of the party, establishing as one of them to exhaust the search for solution of the problem presented through the obligatory use of alternative mechanisms of solution of conflicts. There is already an installed platform at Indecopi, that is free, which guarantees access to justice and does not create any obstacles. The proposed modification will reduce the number of procedures and therefore the processing times. / Trabajo de investigación

En grundsten i det svenska samhället är det konsumentskydd som tar tillvara på konsumentensintressen i förhållandet till näringsidkare. Europakommissionens bolånedirektiv motiverar ett starktkonsumentskydd i syfte att främja utvecklingen av en väl fungerande kreditmarknad i såväl Sverigesom i övriga medlemsstater. Sverige är således tvungna att följa direktivet. Konsumenter har enligtdirektivet rätt att lösa bundna bolån i förtid. Ränteskillnadsersättning kan utgå när en konsument lösersitt bundna bolån i förtid. Syftet är att ersätta kreditgivaren för den förlust som kan uppkomma tillföljd av det uppsagda avtalet. Historiskt har regleringen av ränteskillnadsersättning påverkatbolånebeteenden och gett konsumenter incitament att strategiskt lösa lån eller att inte välja bundnabolån över huvud taget. Enligt EU-direktivet ska ersättningen bland annat vara skälig, objektiv ochendast täcka de direkta kostnader som återbetalningen av lånet innebär för kreditgivaren. Detkonstateras att svensk lagstiftning inte är väl förenlig med EU-direktivet och inte heller uppfyller detkonsumentskydd som direktivet motiverar i villkoren för ersättningen. Avtalsrättsliga principermotiverar att en ersättning utgår vid en förtidsbetalning, däremot motiveras interänteskillnadsersättningen som utgår idag. En väl fungerande kreditmarknad motiverar ettkonsumentskydd utifrån risken för finansiell instabilitet som en över- respektive underkompensationkan resultera i. / The foundation in Swedish society is the consumer protection which takes the consumer’s interests inrelation to the businesses in consideration. European directives include injunctions for housingmortgage loans that motivate a legit consumer protection aiming to improve a well functioning creditmarket in Sweden as well as in other member states. Sweden is therefore obligated to follow thedirectives by law. Pursuant to the directives the consumers obtain the right to repay mortgages with afixed rate prematurely. A prepayment penalty proceeds when a premature payment of a fixed ratemortgage is done and intends to compensate the lender for the contingent loss that may occur due tothe terminated agreement. Historically, the regulation of the prepayment penalty has affected themortgage behavior and given consumers incentives to strategically solve mortgages or not choose afixed rate in the first place. The compensation should be reasonable, objective and only cover thedirect costs that can be related to the premature payment according to the European directive. It isascertained that Swedish regulations are not compatible with the European directives and they do notmeet the consumer protection that the directives warrant for the terms of the compensation. Principleswithin contract law motivate that a compensation emanates in the situation of a prematurely paidmortgage but the prepayment penalty that emanates from today's conditions are not. A wellfunctioning credit market motivates consumer protection through the risk of financial instability as aneffect of an overcompensation as well as an undercompensation.

The thesis analyses the concept ‘fairness’ in consumer contracts regulated by the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, mainly from the perspective of a freedom and fairness orientation. It discusses the evolution of ‘fairness’ as background to a more detailed discussion of the classification of fairness into substantive and procedural fairness. The thesis examines dimensions of fairness, factors which play a role in the determination of fairness, and fairness- oriented approaches in an attempt to formulate a framework for fairness in consumer contracts. The main aspects that should be taken into account to justify a finding of fairness, or to determine whether a contract is fair, are identified. This analysis addresses, too, the extent to which the fairness provisions of the Consumer Protection Act are appropriate (with reference to the law of South Africa, Europe, and England). / Mercantile Law / LL.D.

The thesis analyses the concept ‘fairness’ in consumer contracts regulated by the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, mainly from the perspective of a freedom and fairness orientation. It discusses the evolution of ‘fairness’ as background to a more detailed discussion of the classification of fairness into substantive and procedural fairness. The thesis examines dimensions of fairness, factors which play a role in the determination of fairness, and fairness- oriented approaches in an attempt to formulate a framework for fairness in consumer contracts. The main aspects that should be taken into account to justify a finding of fairness, or to determine whether a contract is fair, are identified. This analysis addresses, too, the extent to which the fairness provisions of the Consumer Protection Act are appropriate (with reference to the law of South Africa, Europe, and England). / Mercantile Law / LL.D.

The law of contract in South African affords parties the freedom to enter into a contract and who they wish to enter with. The general requirements for a legally enforceable contract are consent, good faith, and the sanctity of contract. The contractual freedom of parties also offers them freedom to choose the terms of their contract. Part of these terms is the freedom to incorporate exemption clauses in contracts. An exemption clause is a waiver of liability or the apportionment of risk in the event of an occurrence materialising as defined in the contract. Exemption clauses have become the norm rather than the exception and parties must therefore expect a contract to contain an exemption clause, albeit unfair. Until recently, there was no legislation that declared exemption clauses as unfair. The Consumer Protection Act is South Africa's first legislative regulation on unfair contract terms and the waiver of liability. The Act does not address the contractual freedom of parties to incorporate exemption clauses and whether they will be unenforceable in the light of section 48. The Act cannot be implemented without considering the freedom of contract to rely on exemption clauses. A literature study will be undertaken in order to establish the influence of section 48 of the Consumer Protection Act on South African law of contract and exemption clauses. / LLM (Import and Export Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The law of contract in South African affords parties the freedom to enter into a contract and who they wish to enter with. The general requirements for a legally enforceable contract are consent, good faith, and the sanctity of contract. The contractual freedom of parties also offers them freedom to choose the terms of their contract. Part of these terms is the freedom to incorporate exemption clauses in contracts. An exemption clause is a waiver of liability or the apportionment of risk in the event of an occurrence materialising as defined in the contract. Exemption clauses have become the norm rather than the exception and parties must therefore expect a contract to contain an exemption clause, albeit unfair. Until recently, there was no legislation that declared exemption clauses as unfair. The Consumer Protection Act is South Africa's first legislative regulation on unfair contract terms and the waiver of liability. The Act does not address the contractual freedom of parties to incorporate exemption clauses and whether they will be unenforceable in the light of section 48. The Act cannot be implemented without considering the freedom of contract to rely on exemption clauses. A literature study will be undertaken in order to establish the influence of section 48 of the Consumer Protection Act on South African law of contract and exemption clauses. / LLM (Import and Export Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015