Open Access
Alienation commodification : a critique of the role of EU consumer law
Loading...
Files
Alienation_commodification_2023.pdf (295.68 KB)
Full-text in Open Access, Published version
License
Attribution 4.0 International
Cadmus Permanent Link
Full-text via DOI
ISBN
ISSN
2752-6135
Issue Date
Type of Publication
Keyword(s)
LC Subject Heading
Other Topic(s)
EUI Research Cluster(s)
Initial version
Published version
Succeeding version
Preceding version
Published version part
Earlier different version
Initial format
Author(s)
Citation
European law open, 2023, Vol. 2, No. SI, pp. 405-423
Cite
HESSELINK, Martijn Willem, Alienation commodification : a critique of the role of EU consumer law, European law open, 2023, Vol. 2, No. SI, pp. 405-423 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/76235
Abstract
This paper offers a critique of European Union (EU) consumer law’s role in commodification. Arguing that commodification is best understood as a normatively dependent concept, it contrasts two very different strands of commodification critique. While teleological critique refers to conceptions of the good life, authenticity, or the corruption of human essence, deontological critique relies on conceptions of right and wrong, justice, and human dignity. The paper argues for a specific, Kantian–Marxian version of the latter, proposing to understand commodification as a moral wrong when it leads to legal–political alienation. Such legal–political alienation occurs when someone becomes disconnected or feels dissociated from the political community and its political institutions because its laws treat that person as a mere means, not also an end. The only way to overcome such alienating commodification, the paper argues, is through a dialectic of individual and collective self-determination. On this normative basis, the paper, then, critiques core instances where EU consumer law wrongs its addressees through alienating commodification, including its acceptance of personal data as consideration, its encouragement of consumer resilience, and its privatisation of social justice through ethical consumerism.
Table of Contents
Additional Information
Published online: 31 October 2023
External Links
Publisher
Version
Research Projects
Sponsorship and Funder Information
This article was published Open Access with the support from the EUI Library through the CRUI - CUP Transformative Agreement (2023-2025)