Assignment #15b
Writing Assignment on “Le Balzar” and Consumer Rights
The reading for this Assignment is at University Libraries Reserves Reading#15
Chapter 15 is titled “Consumer Protection.” It begins with the claim that “…activists
argue that wrongs against buyers are common place…(and that they)…exact a heavy price in…
injuries”
Much of the chapter is devoted to a discussion of federal and state regulations to redress
injuries visited upon consumers. These regulations provide new legal rights and in many cases
provide new legal relief which changes existing free market relationships and forces.
The chapter concludes with a terse reminder that this kind of consumer protection “…is
substantially undeveloped in many nations of the world.”
The article “Saving the Balzar” (New Yorker, Aug. 98) (See Library Reserves Reading
#15) discuses a unique type of consumer complaint that arose in France. Note the author’s claim
on page 42, “without denying your right of property, we claim for ourselves a kind of right
usage.” Included within the readings is a recent article in the International Herald Tribune
(8/6/02) which describes patron’s reactions to the closing of a famous New York restaurant “The
Russian Tea Room”.
ASSIGNMENT: Read article. In two typewritten pages or less, discuss the following:
1) Provide an analysis of the Flo Group management’s response to the claims of the Les
Amis Du Balzar group. How do you characterize the effectiveness of their response?
Who appears to have this best strategy to achieve their objectives, Flo or Les Amis?
2) What do you make of the Les Aims claim to a “right of usage”? Is there a right which
might ripen into a legal claim in French or American society?
3) Write a regulation in U.S. or French law to establish and enforce a right of usage.
4) Identify similar “rights” in the United States which non-owners currently assert over
privately owned property they do not own but have an interest in “usage”? Are nuisance
theories (P.679-680) useful in your analysis?
Note: On of the purposes of this assignment is to encourage the teams to engage in creative
thinking about user or customer rights “outside the box”. Think about examples of
government regulation of business property which are studied in this course or others
which might be helpful in responding to the questions.
