Alienation commodification : a critique of the role of EU consumer law

HESSELINK, Martijn Willem

doi:10.1017/elo.2023.33

Alienation commodification : a critique of the role of EU consumer law

dc.contributor.author	HESSELINK, Martijn Willem
dc.date.accessioned	2023-12-22T11:44:59Z
dc.date.available	2023-12-22T11:44:59Z
dc.date.issued	2023
dc.description	Published online: 31 October 2023	en
dc.description.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.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	This article was published Open Access with the support from the EUI Library through the CRUI - CUP Transformative Agreement (2023-2025)	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	European law open, 2023, Vol. 2, No. SI, pp. 405-423	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1017/elo.2023.33
dc.identifier.endpage	423	en
dc.identifier.issn	2752-6135
dc.identifier.issue	s	en
dc.identifier.startpage	405	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1814/76235
dc.identifier.volume	2	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.orcid.upload	true	*
dc.publisher	Cambridge University Press	en
dc.relation.ispartof	European law open	en
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess	en
dc.rights.license	Attribution 4.0 International	*
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	*
dc.title	Alienation commodification : a critique of the role of EU consumer law	en
dc.type	Article	en
dspace.entity.type	Publication
person.identifier.orcid	0000-0001-8247-8558
person.identifier.other	43996
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