A Jurisprudential Analysis of Consumer Protection Enforcement: Integrating Behavioural Theory, Preventative Legal Paradigms, and the Natural Law–Legal Positivism Debate in Zambia

This article explores the theoretical architecture underpinning consumer protection enforcement in Zambia, with a particular focus on the integration of behavioural theory, jurisprudential traditions, and legal regulatory paradigms. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) by Fishbein and Ajzen, the Preventative Control Paradigm, and the normative divergence between Legal Positivism and Natural Law Theory, this review interrogates the philosophical undercurrents guiding consumer protection law. A doctrinal and socio-legal methodology is employed to map the theoretical basis of consumer rights enforcement and its legal legitimacy in the Zambian context. The TPB provides a behavioural framework for understanding consumer complaint intentions and actions, while the preventative control versus reactive paradigm offers contrasting regulatory logics for consumer redress and legal intervention. The article also dissects the jurisprudential tension between positivist and natural law traditions in legitimising consumer rights and law enforcement. It concludes that Zambia’s regulatory model must harmonise behavioural realism with legal idealism by integrating normative justice, social facts, and proactive governance to promote meaningful consumer welfare.