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Consumer Credit, Debt and Bankruptcy

Consumer Credit, Debt and Bankruptcy Comparative and International Perspectives

Author: Johanna Niemi; Iain Ramsay; William C. Whitford
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781841132587
Published In: July 2009
Format: Hardback , 460 pages
Jurisdiction: International ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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After a long period of prosperity and steady economic growth, the world's leading economies are now in crisis, and although there will be debate about its origins, the scale and seriousness of the crisis is in no doubt. There is also no doubt that excessive amounts of consumer credit, allied to a weak understanding of how globalised credit markets might react to a crisis, have played a significant part.

This book, which is primarly about credit, debt and the trouble they have led to, is written by authors who have specialised in researching into over-indebtedness, that is, situations in which an individual's debt burden has become overwhelming. For these authors the plight of individuals is a primary concern, but the wider issue is how credit is used and how it changes societies.

The essays in this volume, addressing topics which are fundamental to our understanding of the current crisis, range widely across the whole sector of consumer finance, including mortgages, 'credit-binges', the regulation of consumer lending, insolvency, repayment plans, debt counselling and much more besides.

The conclusions drawn from the book are equally wide-ranging, but above all the lesson learned from these essays is that the financialisation of contemporary life ensures that issues of the appropriate role of credit remains of critical importance in society.

Johanna Niemi is Senior Researcher at National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Helsinki, Finland.
Iain Ramsay is Professor of Law at Kent Law School, University of Kent at Canterbury.
William C Whitford is Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

This work provides a ready reckoner on the cause and effects of the global credit crisis and some guidance on
how history can perhaps not repeat itself.
Anthony Lo Surdo
Australian Banking and Finance Bulletin
Vol 25 No 6, December 2009/January 2010

It's a good collection of work and is a good entry way into the literature for anyone wanting to think about these issues from a global perspective.
Professor Robert M. Lawless
Credit Slips
October 2009

The book’s twenty papers are sharply focused on the topic of comparative and international consumer overindebtedness. The editors chose these papers from thirty presented at the conference. Some are excellent, even read in isolation. Nearly all are very good. Even the few that are neither were included for a reason: they provide the only windows available into the consumer credit and bankruptcy systems of particular countries...Whatever the future may hold, Consumer Credit is now the state of the art in the very lively field of comparative consumer credit and bankruptcy. This book is a necessity for anyone working or interested in that field.
Lynn M. LoPucki
American Journal of Comparative Law
Volume 58, No. 2.