Abstract

The paper adopts the perspective of “law and literature” studies to investigate how the French novel ‘Lives others than my own (D’autres vies que la mienne)’ by Emmanuel Car-rère addresses the evolutions of European Union law on unfair terms in consumer con-tracts. By looking at European Union law from the perspective of individual lives, the essay compares the way in which literature and EU law conceive three categories of individuals involved: consumers, moneylenders and judges. Carrère’s novel is taken as an example to challenge the stereotype according to which literature expresses a sym-pathetic and partisan conception of social reality compared to the one of law.