Legal studies and economics and finance in the face of the foreign currency mortgage loans problem: the recommendation integrating the perspectives of both of these social sciences disciplines

Abstract

The author addresses the issue of one of the most complex and far-reaching economic phenomena observed in recent years in Poland: legal disputes between banks and consumers as parties to foreign currency mortgage loan agreements. As a result of a critical analysis of the emerging direction of the case law, the author of the article formulates a recommendation that economic and financial arguments should be taken into account in court decisions on disputes arising out of foreign currency mortgage loans. The article provides a justification for implementing this recommendation based on the achievements of economic sciences and identifies interpretative paths developed in legal studies that can be considered for its application by Polish courts. Consequently, contrary to sometimes asserted claims in the subject literature that legal order and the canons of economic rationality are separate, the justification for the proposed recommendation in the article represents an interdisciplinary attempt to integrate the perspectives and tools used in legal studies as well as in economics and finance. The aim of this approach is to shape an institutional order that ensures the optimisation of economic activities for all groups of market actors. The analysis of both the data cited in the article and the positions presented in the literature, as well as those articulated by Polish financial safety net institutions (e.g. UKNF, NBP), leads to the conclusion that this goal can be most fully achieved through the integration of the achievements of both social sciences disciplines rather than contrasting them.