The Impact of Consumer Legal Education on the Effectiveness of the Protection of Consumer Rights: Taking into Account Legal Clinics in Poland

Abstract

Practical aspects of consumer education and also a contrario-negative effects of inaction on this matter-require further analysis due to their fundamental importance in the shaping of the actual level of legal protection of the consumer. An educated consumer, aware of his legal status, in many cases is able to defend his interests and also effectively enforce any claims he is entitled to before a court of law or under existing alternative methods of dispute resolution. Therefore, the main objective of this article is to present the role and importance of legal education of the consumer taking into account the functioning of legal clinics in Poland. Consumer rights will be presented in the general concept of the protection of human rights, with particular emphasis on the right to information-as one of the fundamental rights of the consumer. At the same time, the framework of the Polish law and the European Union law were adopted as a research perspective for these analyses.