E Commerce Law And Jurisdiction Comparative Law Yearbook Of International Business Special

The special issue of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business deals with the very topical subject of e-commerce. This is an area that has seen an explosion of interest in recent years but, since the increase in the use of the Internet as a vehicle for conducting business transactions has been so rapid, the law has again fallen behind, particularly in the areas of regulation and jurisdiction. The situation is changing, however, with the introduction of both national and international legislation dealing with issues and relating to, inter alia, data protection, privacy, electronic signatures, consumer protection and morality. The authors in this volume provide commentaries on the most recent developments in various jurisdictions, including the approach of the European Union to the problems raised by e-commerce. They discuss the difficulties in relation to jurisdiction arising from the global nature of Internet and the possibilities for dispute resolution between multi national parties to an electronic transaction. The topic is obviously one that will require much attention in the coming years and one which will need strict regulation if electronic commerce is destined to become the trading medium of the future.

The 2004 volume of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business contains a wide variety of topics of interest to international commercial lawyers and their clients. Various areas of company law are discussed, including mergers and acquisitions, piercing the corporate veil and the financing of share acquisitions. The Yearbook also contains several chapters on investments and securities, including the need for corporate governance in this area and the role of collective investment schemes in Bermuda. Some chapters deal with the introduction of now technology into the competition law issues encountered by the telecommunications industry. The introduction and effects of new legislation generally are also addressed, including the new Ukrainian Commercial Code and Brazilian Civil Code. In addition to discussions on intellectual property, arbitration and asset protection, the Yearbook contains a section on real property rights, including a very interesting comparison between the way in which China and Indonesia view property rights and the treatment received by such rights in Western society. Various areas of law also are looked at from a European point of view, such as the increase in American-style asbestos litigation in Europe, the hiring out of workers within Europe and the effect of the European Convention on Human Rights upon business. With the ever-increasing introduction of new technology, the expansion of global communications, new attitudes towards business and commerce and increased awareness of personal and property rights, there is a constant need for the law to develop in order to adequately deal with these issues. The yearbook branches out into some of the innovative and topical areas of contemporary law, and should be of great interest to anyone involved in modern-day business.

This years volume of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business covers a wide spectrum of topics, ranging from the historical development of civil law in China, with its German and Russian influences, to legal regulation of the new technologies involved in electronic commerce. The use of electronic contracts and signatures is becoming more and more widespread, and international law has addressed these issues in the Model Law on Electronic Commerce and the Model law on Electronic Signatures. The book contains chapters describing the way in which Brazil and Japan have incorporated these laws into their national legal systems and what measure they have to regulate the use of these new technologies in the conducting of business transactions. Another area that is dealt with here is that of insider trading and market abuse, particularly in relation to the Netherlands and Finland. Following a number of cases highlighting the problem, the European Union has introduced the Market Abuse Directive and the Insider Trading Directive which, again, are being implemented by the Member States. European employment law is also under discussion, with particular regard being had to the protection of employees rights upon the transfer of undertakings. This is looked at from both the European and French points of view, with the general employment law situation in Estonia being discussed in detail. Once again, the new law regulating investment is raised in this volume, this time dealing with private investment in Peru and foreign investment in the Russian Federation. In addition, a number of general commercial issues are included, such as European insolvency law, damage caps in American tort law, arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism in mergers and acquisitions, security interest over property in Spain and the doctrine of legitimate expectation in Australian immigration law, as well as a comparative study of Japanese and Iranian trademark law. All of these topics are presented by experts in their respective fields, and should be of interest to legal practitioners and their clients who are involved in such international issues.

In this thirty-ninth volume of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business, practitioners and experts in various legal fields from Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Isle of Man, Japan, New Zealand, Romania, South Africa, and the United States examine issues from national and regional perspectives. Authors from New Zealand and South Africa review matters pertaining to cybercrime and cybersecurity law and employee use of social networking sites. Under the heading Corporate Law, practitioners from the United States, Canada, the Isle of Man, and Romania deal with issues such as transfer of business, choice of law regarding intermediated securities, beneficial ownership of companies, and shareholder activism. Finally, authors from Belgium and Japan treat best-efforts clauses, and copyright protection of digital rights management.

In this thirty-eighth volume of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business, once again practitioners and experts in a variety of legal fields examine issues from national and regional perspectives. Authors from Germany, Japan, Nigeria, and Poland deal with issues relating to data protection and privacy. Investment and infrastructure topics are examined by authors from Brazil, Colombia, Greece, and the United States. Subjects ranging from corporate responsibility, patent infringement litigation, and credit portfolio transfers to medical and family leave, food and beverage product representations, and distribution agreements are treated by authors from Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, and the United States.

The 2003 volume of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business deals with a variety of topics in the field of commercial law. These range from mergers in Nigeria and joint ventures in Thailand and Hungary to the fight against corruption on an international level, as well as corporate fraud in the United States, with attention being focused upon the new Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Some authors have dealt with subjects that involve finance, such as foreign investment in e-commerce in China, employees' stock purchases and option plans in the United States, pension funds in Nigeria and preferential tax regimes in Madeira. There is also a review of the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures. Other popular areas of commercial law that are covered in this volume include consumer protection in Bulgaria and alternative dispute resolution. Arbitration in Paraguay is discussed, along with the conducting of mediation by legal professionals. In addition, European Union law arises in relation to the likelihood of association, with another chapter detailing the economic association between Mexico and the European Union. The Commentators in this book are leading professionals in their respective fields and the interesting mix of topics should be of value to those involved in business in the international arena and their legal advisers.

The Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business, published under the auspices of the Center for International Legal Studies, in this 43rd volume spans an arc of timely and challenging concerns for business law practitioners and academics alike. It discusses: how arbitrability of intellectual property rights disputes might improve worldwide IPR enforcement; how the "disregard of legal entity" may be used to establish implied consent by a person or entity that is not a signatory to an arbitration agreement; how an effective cross-border insolvency framework under the Indian insolvency and bankruptcy code can borrow from the UNCITRAL Model Law's and other jurisdictions' approaches to the tension between "universality" and "territoriality"; how a promising new mediation act for Pakistan may help resolve a backlog of millions of cases in a jurisdiction with a patchwork of traditional and modern alternative dispute resolution mechanisms; how the European Union seeks to balance the taxation of digital services; how Brazil is addressing the taxation of offshore indirect transfers; how private equity capital structures in the unique market of professional sports create opportunities as well as risks; how Securities Market Regulation theory plays a role in the organization and development of active securities markets, particularly in emerging markets; and how non-signatories can be bound by arbitration agreements in Brazil through "disregard of legal entity" to ascertain implied consent. The authors are practitioners and academics from Brazil, England, France, India, Pakistan, Singapore, the United States and Uzbekistan. They offer a broad and diverse perspective on some of today's pressing business law issues in a shrinking world.