Lectures, talks and seminars

Rutherford House Seminar Room 204 (RH204)

Presented by


Description

When broken, other-regarding 'virtuous promises' about products (e.g., eco-friendly, responsible, fair-trade, cruelty free, conflict free) give rise to identity harm by making consumers unwittingly complicit in hurting others.

A leading example is the Volkswagen emissions scandal: when environmentally-conscious purchasers of Volkswagen’s 'clean diesel' cars learned that the vehicles were in fact hyper-polluting, they experienced identity harm because of their complicity in a scheme that hurt the planet and the health of their communities.

As more people become sensitized to environmental and social (labor and human rights) sustainability challenges, they are also becoming increasingly concerned about their role in aggravating these challenges through their individual consumption. Identity harm surfaces against the backdrop of an under-regulated market for virtuous goods that is expanding to meet the demands of conscious consumers. Troublingly, those who experience identity harm currently have little recourse in private law, which reveals a serious deficit in our legal regime. This article, one in a series, recommends correcting this protective deficit by operationalizing identity harm under tort, contract, and state consumer law, with a particular focus on the latter.


Speaker Bios

Professor Dadush’s research explores public and private law mechanisms for regulating the social and environmental performance of transnational corporations.

Before joining the Rutgers faculty, Professor Dadush served as Legal Counsel and Partnership Officer for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Rome. Prior to that, she was a Fellow at NYU’s Institute for International Law and Justice, where she administered the Institute’s research program on Financing for Development. She also worked as an Associate Attorney at the global law firm, Allen & Overy L.L.P., specializing in international investment arbitration and cross-border banking transactions.

She received her J.D. and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Duke University School of Law in 2004.


For catering purposes, please email: Lee.Vassiliadis@vuw.ac.nz by 11am on Friday 17 May 2019.

For more information contact: Dr Amanda Reilly

Amanda.Reilly@vuw.ac.nz 04 463 6958