VULNERABILITY IN THE MICROSYSTEM OF CONSUMER LAW

Abstract

The paper examines the centrality of vulnerability in the microsystem of protection of consumers and users, understood as a legal category that articulates equality, equity and dignity. This sector of private law has become the most dynamic space for the protection of people in structurally disadvantaged situations, by explicitly recognizing the inherent power asymmetries of the market and promoting differentiated mechanisms aimed at restoring real conditions of equality. The article analyzes the constitutional, international, supranational, and comparative evolution of this principle, showing how various legal systems raise equitable treatment and the prohibition of discrimination to higher levels of legal protection. Likewise, the Argentine normative construction is examined, in which the defense of consumers incorporates a human rights perspective and expands the scope of the antidiscrimination principle. The study also highlights the regional expansion of norms that prohibit abusive and discriminatory practices, and that require objective, deferential and inclusive conduct by providers. It is pursued to demonstrate that vulnerability constitutes a structural normative axis for the contemporary understanding of consumer law and a central instrument for the reinforced protection of groups traditionally relegated. The novelty lies in the study of vulnerability in this orbit of Private Law, and not only in the traditional field of human rights.