Responsible information and financial education as a measure of efficient civil law and social consumer protection

Abstract

There are various approaches to interpreting causes of the increasing over-indebtedness of citizens: economic, social and legal. Such an increase is certainly one of the consequences of the financial crisis. However, growing accessibility and variety of financial services, lack of understanding of terms, i.e. fundamental contractual rights and duties that arise out of contracting such services also contributes to the increase of indebtedness. Therefore, basic questions that the paper attempts to answer is: to what extent is the knowledge about rights and obligations of citizens who use financial and public services a credible measure of efficiency of civil law regulations which should, among other things, protect social rights, since their application affects over-indebtedness of citizens? The answers to the aforementioned question are largely based on the results of the research conducted in October 2016 within the project Civil Law Protection of Citizens in the Financial Crisis. The results have been analysed in the context of basic values expressed through individual principles of the responsible lending model, as well as individual principles of the European Social Model. The principle in focus is consumer protection which connects both models, and the realisation of which assumes certain harmonisation of particular parts of civil law protection and social protection of citizens. Based on the research results, the paper examines to what extent are certain civil law norms, particularly those that regulate the manner of informing citizens upon using financial and certain public services, socially efficient. That fosters the introduction of a more efficient legal and non-legal citizen protection in order to reduce their financial, and thus consequently their social exclusion.