Question: What is your openion about the universalisation of E-commerce Laws in world wide.As we all know almost all countries had passed E-commerce ACT and Rules. Defenitely there is some difference in each coutries Act, this will end up in future problems. Adv.Latha.K

Nominee Replies

Sureswaran Ramadass - posted on 2000-09-29 06:12:15 Agreed to a form of universalisation of E-comm laws. ICANN should setup a committee to draft this with feedback from all countries in the world. All countries should have an even say. Johannes Chiang - posted on 2000-09-28 09:37:26 I am very glad to know that you had done IBM certified E-Commerce professional Course and MBA. I teach in the College of Commerce at NCCU the EC platform and software for years, of course including those of IBM. I am also very proud for you because you can combine the experiences in EC with your practices in the Court. I think it is very important for the people working in the courts to be backgrounded with such interdisciplinary knowledge for the new era. Since electronic commerce is a global activity, a compatible and interoperable framework is a vital means by which to facilitate global e-commerce. All countries should places emphasis on the global harmonization of the legal framework for electronic commerce so as to avoid the creation of new legal obstacles by domestic legal systems. In addition, we should support efforts to ensure that laws afford treatment to electronic commerce that is equivalent to that for other forms of commercial activity. We should also support efforts to ensure technology neutrality. That's also why I think the interdisciplinary knowledge in so important. Yes, the universalisation of E-commerce Laws world wide is necessary. But, it is at this moment still to be approached. From my point of view, ICANN and Internet experts could contribute their knowledge and movements to further development in numbering and protocols in the IP layer to facilitate the realization of applications of the higher layers. Due to the diversity of legal & commercial systems existing within various countries and the rapid growth of e-commerce, approaches to e-commerce related laws are both incomprehensive and yet, unavoidable. The borderless nature of e-commerce has created a growing need for harmony over global policy in this area. International organizations and fora such as WTO, OECD, UNCITRAL and APEC have proposed the initiation of efforts to develop global or regional frameworks to address uncertainties arising from the global inconsistency of current e-commerce related laws. The participation and cooperation of all stakeholders from all countries is vital to achieving the goal of facilitating e-commerce, and I am devoted to encouraging and promoting efforts by ICANN to address issues relevant to cooperation in this area with other organizations and fora. I also look forward to taking part in continuing efforts towards the development of e-commerce. Lulin Gao - posted on 2000-09-28 01:30:07 This is a very interesting question. I would like to have a further discussion with you on a separate occasion. Since ICANN’s mission is restricted to dealing with policy issues concerning Internet domain names and numbering systems, I don not think it is proper to spend too much time on issues outside the scope of issues to be considered by ICANN. Generally, it is a desirable approach to have a uniform legislative framework concerning e-commerce. However, as you may appreciate, there are tremendous issues to be covered under the framework and a majority of such issues have not yet be taken up by various jurisdictions by taking into account the special requirements of culture, legal and historical backgrounds of each sovereign states. Nevertheless, I think it should be appropriate to have an international organization (e.g., WTO) to further study these issues and discuss and adopt, among interested parties (including ICANN), generally acceptable principles and rules concerning the businesses carried out on the Internet. Masanobu Katoh - posted on 2000-09-27 08:25:04 In the e-commerce era, comparative international legal considerations will become ever more important. When considering foreign laws, it is vitally important not just to consider the wording of the statute but to analyze how the system as a whole functions. Even where the actual statutory wording is different, because the legal frameworks differ, the end result may often be the same. We should strive to avoid inconsistencies and achieve considerable standardization while attaining mutual recognition of others’ systems.