How should the Internet be governed? What role should governments play? What about the private sector? Does it still make sense — as it did in 1998 when it was created — for a non-profit corporation based in California to be responsible for managing the Domain Name System (DNS), which...

Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) are an increasingly important component of international investment law. There are currently more than 2,000 BITs involving some 175 countries active around the world. These agreements cover a huge range of industry sectors and business activities. The United...

Cross-border contracts for the sale of goods are part and parcel of international trade. When a US buyer or seller is involved in an international sale of goods the court must give consideration to the application of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of...

On September 7, 2012 the Second Circuit struck a blow for all of those consumers that have been fooled by data pass marketing programs, especially those that contain an arbitration clause hidden within its terms. In the case of Schnabel v. Trilegiant Corp. the court examined the enforceability...

Back in 1970, when Ulrich Drobnig first published his seminal UNCITRAL Report, it would have been hard to imagine that a day would come when the topic of harmonisation of secured transactions would produce such a plethora of well-authored books and journal articles. Without a doubt, the Akseli...

The use of electronic commerce in international trade has grown exponentially in the last few years. However, to date few legal instruments have harmonized the law in relation to electronic communications. In response to this gap, UNCITRAL initiated the Convention on the Use of Electronic...

On 23 November 2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a new draft convention on the use of electronic communications in international contracting, known as the Draft Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts. The Draft Convention, in a similar...

History is replete with epidemics that have decimated ever larger populations, from the Plague of Athens in 430 B.C., to the global swine flu of 1918-9, to AIDS and the dire modern predictions surrounding H-5N1. Due to the rapid pace of globalization, the world is fast becoming a global germ...

Having access to the internet is increasingly considered to be an emerging human right. International organizations and national governments have begun to formally recognize its importance to freedom of speech, expression, and information exchange. The next step to help ensure some measure of...

Since the term was first coined in the late 1990s, the “Internet of Things” has promised a smart, interconnected world of stuff enabling your toaster to text you when your breakfast is ready, and your sweatshirt to give you status updates during your workout. This rise of “smart...