Electronic Contracts:An Analysis of the Law Applicable to Electronic Contracts in England and Wales and its Role in Facilitating the Growth of Electronics

Electronic commerce has been described as unique, in the opportunities it creates for economic growth and its potential to revolutionise the way business is done. Although initial expectations and predictions have proven rather optimistic, it must nevertheless be accepted that electronic commerce has firmly established its place in the economies of the United Kingdom and European Union. Although considerable work and discussion has surrounded the creation of a regulatory framework for electronic commerce, insufficient attention has been given to the most fundamental element - the legal regime applicable to electronic contracts. Electronic contracts form the basis of electronic commerce. Parties have been contracting electronically for some time. However, electronic contracts have unique qualities and attributes making them sufficiently `different' to contracts entered by more `traditional' means to raise questions of the applicability and appropriateness of existing legal principles. This work is an examination of the legal environment within which electronic contracts are made. If electronic commerce is to reach its economic potential there must be a stable and predictable legal environment for electronic contracts. In this thesis the existing common law and regulatory principles are analysed, in the context of electronic contracts, to examine whether their application has the potential to create a stable legal environment. It is argued that a combination of, uncertainty in the common law; dated concepts in regulatory measures; and the introduction of new regulation without sufficient consideration of the nature of the electronic environment, has resulted in a lack of clarity in the law applicable to electronic contracts.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Electronic Evidence and Electronic Signatures

In this updated edition of the well-established practitioner text, Stephen Mason and Daniel Seng have brought together a team of experts in the field to provide an exhaustive treatment of electronic evidence and electronic signatures. This fifth edition continues to follow the tradition in English evidence text books by basing the text on the law of England and Wales, with appropriate citations of relevant case law and legislation from other jurisdictions. Stephen Mason (of the Middle Temple, Barrister) is a leading authority on electronic evidence and electronic signatures, having advised global corporations and governments on these topics. He is also the editor of International Electronic Evidence (British Institute of International and Comparative Law 2008), and he founded the innovative international open access journal Digital Evidence and Electronic Signatures Law Review in 2004. Daniel Seng (Associate Professor, National University of Singapore) is the Director of the Centre for Technology, Robotics, AI and the Law (TRAIL). He teaches and researches information technology law and evidence law. Daniel was previously a partner and head of the technology practice at Messrs Rajah & Tann. He is also an active consultant to the World Intellectual Property Organization, where he has researched, delivered papers and published monographs on copyright exceptions for academic institutions, music copyright in the Asia Pacific and the liability of Internet intermediaries

Was the Scots Common Law underlying contracts of sale unified in regard to the implied warranty of soundness?

The thesis explores whether, prior to the nineteenth century regime of legislative intervention which anglicised the law relating to contracts of sale for goods, the Scots common law underlying contracts of sale developed in a unitary fashion. Did the same principles apply regardless of whether the subject of the sale was corporeal moveable, corporeal immoveable or incorporeal? This question is analysed through a case study of the common law contractual implied warranty of soundness, and its application to the three types of property mentioned above. While this study does not provide a definitive answer on its own, it does give us a preliminary indication as to whether the law was unified or not. The thesis relies primarily on Scots case law and academic writings, employing historical and doctrinal methodologies. The study is supplemented by comparative law from France, Germany, South Africa and England. Roman law, and the works certain Ius Commune writers, are also referenced. The thesis can be divided into four parts. The first part explores whether academic texts on the contract of sale dating prior to the legislative intervention took a unified approach in their discussion. This establishes whether scholars from this period viewed the contract of sale as unified; and aids the analysis in subsequent chapters. The second part examines the warranty’s substantive framework in the context of its development, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, through case law featuring corporeal moveable property. The third part looks at the warranty’s use in contracts of sale for corporeal immoveable property. Here, I establish that: 1) there was no consensus as to whether or not the warranty applied to this type of property; and 2) the warranty was not utilised by buyers of this type of property in practice. I identify a combination of factors which prevented buyers of latently defective corporeal immoveable property from invoking the warranty. The final part of the thesis examines the warranty’s actual and theoretical application to contracts of sale for incorporeal property. It establishes that the warranty would be relevant to some, but not all, types of incorporeal property

Electronic Evidence: 4th Edition

This well-established practitioner text provides an exhaustive treatment of electronic evidence. The revised outline for the fourth edition will continue to follow the tradition in English evidence text books by basing the text on the law of England and Wales, with appropriate citations of relevant case law and legislation from other jurisdictions

Electronic Evidence and Electronic Signatures

In this updated edition of the well-established practitioner text, Stephen Mason and Daniel Seng have brought together a team of experts in the field to provide an exhaustive treatment of electronic evidence and electronic signatures. This fifth edition continues to follow the tradition in English evidence text books by basing the text on the law of England and Wales, with appropriate citations of relevant case law and legislation from other jurisdictions. Stephen Mason (of the Middle Temple, Barrister) is a leading authority on electronic evidence and electronic signatures, having advised global corporations and governments on these topics. He is also the editor of International Electronic Evidence, and he founded the innovative international open access journal Digital Evidence and Electronic Signatures Law Review in 2004. Daniel Seng (Associate Professor, National University of Singapore) is the Director of the Centre for Technology, Robotics, AI and the Law (TRAIL). He teaches and researches information technology law and evidence law. Daniel was previously a partner and head of the technology practice at Messrs Rajah & Tann. He is also an active consultant to the World Intellectual Property Organization, where he has researched, delivered papers and published monographs on copyright exceptions for academic institutions, music copyright in the Asia Pacific and the liability of Internet intermediaries

Accountants\u27 index. Thirty-second supplement, January-December 1983, volume 1: A-L

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_accind/1041/thumbnail.jp

Trusted computing or trust in computing? Legislating for trust networks

This thesis aims to address several issues emerging in the new digital world. Using Trusted Computing as the paradigmatic example of regulation though code that tries to address the cyber security problem that occurs, where the freedom of the user to reconfigure her machine is restricted in exchange for greater, yet not perfect, security. Trusted Computing is a technology that while it aims to protect the user, and the integrity of her machine and her privacy against third party users, it discloses more of her information to trusted third parties, exposing her to security risks in case of compromising occurring to that third party. It also intends to create a decentralized, bottom up solution to security where security follows along the arcs of an emergent “network of trust”, and if that was viable, to achieve a form of code based regulation. Through the analysis attempted in this thesis, we laid the groundwork for a refined assessment, considering the problems that Trusted Computing Initiative (TCI) faces and that are based in the intentional, systematic but sometimes misunderstood and miscommunicated difference (which as we reveal results directly in certain design choices for TC) between the conception of trust in informatics (“techno-trust”) and the common sociological concept of it. To reap the benefits of TCI and create the dynamic “network of trust”, we need the sociological concept of trust sharing the fundamental characteristics of transitivity and holism which are absent from techno-trust. This gives rise to our next visited problems which are: if TC shifts the power from the customer to the TC provider, who takes on roles previously reserved for the nation state, then how in a democratic state can users trust those that make the rules? The answer lies partly in constitutional and human rights law and we drill into those functions of TC that makes the TCI provider comparable to state-like and ask what minimal legal guarantees need to be in place to accept, trustingly, this shift of power. Secondly, traditional liberal contract law reduces complex social relations to binary exchange relations, which are not transitive and disrupt rather than create networks. Contract law, as we argue, plays a central role for the way in which the TC provider interacts with his customers and this thesis contributes in speculating of a contract law that does not result in atomism, rather “brings in” potentially affected third parties and results in holistic networks. In the same vein, this thesis looks mainly at specific ways in which law can correct or redefine the implicit and democratically not validated shift of power from customer to TC providers while enhancing the social environment and its social trust within which TC must operate

Shipbuilding disputes: influence of industry norms on law and contracts

Disputes continue to beset English law governed shipbuilding contracts to this day, despite the fact that English law’s characterisation of the shipbuilding contract and relationship have been established since the late 19th Century. For English law to develop such that shipbuilding disputes do not occur in future, this thesis argues that lawmakers and judges must give due regard to shipbuilding industry norms. In order to do so, this thesis will firstly demonstrate that there is a disparity between how English law characterises all shipbuilding contracts and relationships, and the variety of shipbuilding contracts, relationships and projects found in the industry. It is thus argued that reconciliation of this void between law and industry is contingent upon the law having regard for industry norms. This thesis will then examine the causes of shipbuilding disputes, before exploring the judicial remedies available to parties following dispute - both if shipbuilding contracts continue to be characterised as sale of goods provisions under English law, and if legislators decide otherwise. The context of remedies will in turn be used to demonstrate how industry norms can influence both the judicial remedies issued by judges and arbitrators, and the contractual remedy clauses which parties insert into their contracts to resolve or mitigate shipbuilding disputes

Specific Challenges of Consumer Protection in Distance Selling Contracts: A Comparison of the Laws of England and Iraq on the Duty to Provide Pre-Contractual Information and the Right of Cancellation

This study has covered the duty to provide pre-contractual information and the right of cancellation, the two important key areas of consumer protection in distance selling contracts. These two protection models are invented to rebalance the distance contract in favour of the consumer albeit differently. The duty to provide information rebalances the contract in terms of information, and the right of cancellation provides the distance consumer with an opportunity to rethink the decision about the contract. The study has looked at pertinent laws of distance selling contracts in England and Iraq. In doing so, the study has followed comparative and analytical methodology, whereby strengths and weaknesses, similarities and dissimilarities between the selected laws under a chosen theme are addressed. The aim is to explore problems and loopholes, which may need future amendments, including legal gaps, ambiguity, and incomplete treatment. During the study, specific challenges related to the theme of study are critically analysed. Apparently, the quantity and type of information required, the time and manner of sending information, and the remedy available at the breach are challenges of the information requirements. Challenges of the right of cancellation are the conditions and effects of using the right. The study has concluded that many aspects of protection under both laws need further improvements. The need for changes is more obvious with Iraqi Law than English Law, where distance selling protection has not been recognised yet

Open Source Law, Policy and Practice

This book examines various policies, including the legal and commercial aspects of the Open Source phenomenon. Here, ‘Open Source’ is adopted as convenient shorthand for a collection of diverse users and communities, whose differences can be as great as their similarities. The common thread is their reliance on, and use of, law and legal mechanisms to govern the source code they write, use, and distribute. The central fact of open source is that maintaining control over source code relies on the existence and efficacy of intellectual property (‘IP’) laws, particularly copyright law. Copyright law is the primary statutory tool that achieves the end of openness, although implemented through private law arrangements at varying points within the software supply chain. This dependent relationship is itself a cause of concern for some philosophically in favour of ‘open’, with some predicting (or hoping) that the free software movement will bring about the end of copyright as a means for protecting software