Internet and International Commercial Law Dissertation

Internet and International Commercial Law - Dissertation Example The Internet has become the platform for sellers to show case their goods and services which the buyers and consumers alike could access them readily at competitive prices. Internet legal hassles increase with the ever increasing usage of internet internationally. Although disputes are resolved through long existing treaties, conventions and jurisdictions, some issues relating international applications and internet regulations are yet to be addressed. The United States law is the frequently applied law to set right legal issues arising out of international internet legal difficulties concerning e-commerce of not only Americans but also people outside the American jurisdiction, Just as the United States have legislated Internet-related laws, there are Cyber-Crime Conventions, the Hague Conventions on Jurisdictions and judgments, rulings of the World Intellectual Property Organisation and the United Nations Internet Governance available for applications in the international commerce t ransactions. The Hague Choice of Court Convention aims to remove uncertainty in the issues of jurisdiction, judgement recognition in online transactions governed by International business-to-business to agreements. Obviously consumer transactions are not included. The Hague Convention’s provision for honouring of forum selection clauses will ensure incorporation jurisdiction in the international contract agreements and in turn facilitate recognition of the relevant court’s judgment as also its enforcement globally i.e amongst the signatory countries. It is noteworthy that a domestic agreement cannot designate a foreign court. Apart from International Internet law, International Internet case law has also developed over the years. For example, choice of law and recognition of judgement were an issue in La Ligue Contre Le Racisme et L'Antisemitisme v. Yahoo, in which a French court issued its judgement regarding an Internet case dealing with sale of Nazi-related items. T his became an issue in the United States when the French court’s judgement was sought to be enforced in the U.S. As most of the International Internet disputes in the United States claim jurisdiction outside the U.S., parties to the dispute application of non-American law. In Dow Jones v Gutnick, the High Court of Australia decided in favour of an Australian to bring action for defamation on a U.S. party for an Internet article published on American Server and downloaded in Australia.2 United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts This convention of 2004 aims to eliminate legal uncertainty in the use of electronic communications during the course of international commerce as the uncertainty is a potential obstacle to international commerce. Besides elimination of uncertainty, the convention aims to bring in uniform rules to be adopted so as to remove obstacles said above and to remove possible problems that may be encountered in the operation of international trade law instruments such as Letter of Credit etc. The uniform rules also recognize the parties’ freedom to select media and technologies of their choice so as to uphold the principles of technological neutrality and functional equivalence. This would ensure that electronic means chosen by the parties are in compliance with law. Thus this Convention applies where parties to a contract are from different countries.

From War to War, the world in the years 1918-1939 Essay

From War to War, the world in the years 1918-1939 - Essay Example The U.S., being the only Western country with an economy nearly unaffected by the war was in a position to assist the war-torn nations. It supplied loans to Germany and Austria, the losing parties in the Great War. Germany and Austria, on the other hand, were obliged to pay reparations to France and Great Britain. Both Great Britain and France, for their part, had to repay the U.S. which had provided them with loans in the duration of World War I. In such situation, the U.S. financial institutions saw that investments in Europe had become no longer viable and they were prompted to pull out their funds out of the continent, leaving Germany and Austria in serious economic turmoil. The U.S too suffered greatly in the economic sphere. For a time, its agricultural sector grew while there was virtually no competition from Europe, which has yet to recover from the war. However, when Europe’s farmers began to produce the same agricultural products as the Americans came up with, an ove rproduction occurred. The crisis of overproduction eventually led into the downfall of a great number of farms and agricultural enterprises. As the stock market crashed in 1929, industrial and commercial activities came to a slowdown, depriving hundreds of thousands of workers of their jobs. The market contracted further and resulted in more joblessness. This was because â€Å"consumer demand no longer sufficed to purchase all the goods that businesses produced, and when business realized that could not sell their inventories, they responded with cutbacks in production and additional layoffs† (Bentley & Ziegler, 2011, p.986). As America suffered great setbacks in its economy, a chapter in history called the Great Depression, the countries in Europe also began to experience worse economic crisis. Among those that bore the brunt is Germany. As the Great Depression wreaked havoc on the U.S. and other countries of Western Europe, the Soviet Union managed to pursue more seriously its own socialist economic programs. The Great Depression was pointed out as a sign that capitalism is a bankrupt system and that socialism is the only path towards economic development. Both V.I. Lenin and Josef Stalin were able to initiate programs that aimed to industrialize the Soviet Union, less concerned this time with external threats coming from the weakened West. Lenin, however, was pragmatic as he considered certain aspects in the economy that should bear the hallmarks of capitalist system at least for a certain period of time. Through the New Economic Policy or NEP, â€Å"large industries, banks, and transportation and communications facilities remained under state control, but the government returned small-scale industries (those with fewer than twenty workers) to private ownership† (Bentley & Ziegler, 2011, p.992). When Lenin died, however, his successor Stalin, decided to hasten the construction of a purely socialist state. He did so by overturning the NEP and i nitiating the collectivization of agriculture. The objective was apparently to bolster the efforts in national industrialization. However, Stalin’s policy led to the alienation of many peasants, especially the kulaks who benefitted much from the NEP. Discontent grew and many began to oppose the Stalin’s government. In response to this, Stalin used the full force of the state and the Communist Party in running after individuals who are suspected of opposing the policies