Preamble I: Purposes, Legal Nature, and Scope of the PICC; Applicability by Courts; Use of the PICC for the Purpose of Interpretation and Supplementation and as a Model

Professor Michael\u27s chapter provides commentary on Preamble I of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. Areas covered include purposes, legal nature and scope of the PICC; applicability by courts; use of the PICC for the purpose of interpretation and supplementation and as a model

Commercial conflict and regulation in the discourse of trade in seventeenth-century England

This article seeks to re-examine the intellectual context of commercial policy and regulation in seventeenth-century England. It questions a common assumption about so-called ‘mercantilist’ writers: that they saw trade as in some way finite and therefore won by one nation at the expense of another. Instead, it proposes that the often belligerent attitude of the ‘mercantilists’ towards trade was rooted in an understanding of the nature of international commerce as both communication and competition. Although writers acknowledged the mutual aspect of trade, they did not see this exchange as automatically equal, but saw it as possible for one party to exploit the other. This situation demanded state action to protect national trading interests in the disputed area of commerce, and thus this ‘discourse of trade’ was linked to political and juridical discourses about international relations. The article shows how this understanding of trade influenced debates about commercial governance in the critical middle decades of the seventeenth century, culminating in the attempt to create a national monopoly through the navigation acts, ‘securing sovereignty’ over the nation's trade. The second half of this article examines this in more detail with reference to the ideas of a prominent defender of the 1651 Navigation Act: Benjamin Worsley

The concerns of the shipping industry regarding the application of electronic bills of lading in practice amid technological change

In the sea trade, the traditional paper-based bill of lading has played an important role across the globe for centuries, but with the advent of advanced commercial modes of transportation and communication, the central position of this document is under threat. The importance of the bill of lading still prevails as does the need of the functions that this document served in the past, although in a changed format. In the recent past, the world has witnessed a lot of debate about replacing this traditional paper-based document with an electronic equivalent that exhibits all of its functions and characteristics, both commercial and legal. More specifically, unlike many rival travel documents, such as the Sea Waybill, a bill of lading has two prominent features, that is to say, its negotiability and its acceptability as a document of title in certain legal jurisdictions that are required to be retained in an electronic bill of lading so as to also retain the prominence of this document in the future landscape. This thesis is, however, more concerned about the legal aspects of adopting the electronic bill of lading as a traditional paper-based legal document as well as an effective legal document in the present age. However, the scope of this debate remains primarily focused on the USA and UK jurisdictions. In the course of this thesis, it is observed that, in the past, the bill of lading has been subject to a variety of international regimes, such as The Hague Rules and The Hague-Visby Rules, and presently efforts are being made to arrive at a universal agreement under the umbrella of The Rotterdam Rules, but such an agreement is yet to arrive among the comity of nations. On the other hand, efforts made by the business community to introduce an electronic bill of lading are much louder and more evident. The private efforts, such as the SeaDocs System, CMI Rules, and the BOLERO Project, etc., were, however, received by the fellow business community with both applause as well as suspicion. At the same time, there are a number of concerns voiced by the international business community on the legislative adoptability in national and international jurisdictions and the courts’ approach in adjudicating cases involving electronic transactions and these are making the task of adoption of electronic bill of lading in the sea-based transactions a difficult task. Therefore, in the absence of any formal legal backing from national and international legislations, these attempts could not achieve the desired results. In this thesis, the present situation of the acceptability of electronic transactions in general, and of the electronic bill of lading specifically, has also been discussed with reference to certain national jurisdictions, such as Australia, India, South Korea and China, in order to present comparative perspectives on the preparedness of these nations. On the regional level, the efforts made by the European Union have also been discussed to promote electronic transactions within its jurisdiction. All the discussion, however, leads to the situation where the level of acceptability of electronic bill of lading in the near future is found to be dependent upon the official efforts from the national governments and putting these efforts towards arriving at an agreement on Rotterdam Rules as early as possible. The other area of importance revealed in this thesis is the need for change in juristic approach by the courts while interpreting and adjudicating upon cases involving electronic transactions. On the whole, this thesis has provided a cohesive and systematic review, synthesis and analysis of the history of the bill of lading, its importance as a document of title, and attempts to incorporate its important functions within the fast-paced electronic shipping commerce of today. In such a way it has provided a valuable contribution to the literature by providing a comprehensive resource for jurists, policy-makers and the business community alike, as they work towards adapting the bill of lading so that it might be successfully applied in electronic form.

An Investigation of the Negotiation Domain for Electronic Commerce Information Systems

To support fully automatic business cycles, information systems for electronic commerce need to be able to conduct negotiation automatically. In recent years, a number of general frameworks for automated negotiation have been proposed. Application of such frameworks in a specific negotiation situation entails selecting the proper framework and adapting it to this situation. This selection and adaptation process is driven by the specific characteristics of the situation. This paper presents a systematic investigation of there characteristics and surveys a number of frameworks for automated negotiation

Breach of information duties in the B2C e-commerce: a comparative analysis of English and Spanish law

In the study various remedies are examined: remedies directly established in the legislation, such as the withdrawal period extension or consumer not being bound by the contract, remedies for indirect duties resulting from application of the specific consumer legislation: the regime of lack of conformity of the product with the contract and private redress for misleading commercial actions (specific to the English law), and finally remedies resulting from general private law, mainly defects of consent and breach of contract. Nevertheless, since the economics of general contract law differ importantly from principles of consumer e-commerce, various problems can be associated with the application of general law remedies to the breach of information duties in B2C contracts. The shortcomings of the current status quo of consumer protection through information duties from the perspective of their breach are presented, and various possible improvements are explored.B2C e-commerce is characterised by the information asymmetry between the contracting parties. Various information duties are imposed on traders, both at the European and national level to correct this asymmetry and to ensure proper market functioning. Nevertheless, there is no clear list of remedies for breach of information duties neither in national nor European law. Apart from few exceptions, where remedies for breach of certain information requirements are directly established, consumers need to claim remedies set out in the national law, within the specific provisions of consumer law, as well as general private law. The present study compares remedies for breach of information duties available in two European legal systems, English and Spanish, thus examining solutions adopted in common and civil law. The starting point for the analysis is the different approach to the mandated disclosure that each system developed: English law treats information duties with scepticism, whilst in Spanish law the principle of pre-contractual good faith governs the relationship of the parties, who are required to provide each other with relevant information. There are two types of information requirements that need to be considered: direct information duties established in lists enumerating information items to be provided, and indirect duties, which can be deduced from less specific provisions, often such that establish negative consequences of failure to provide information.The remedies for both types of duties in both legal systems analysed often overlap, which leads to a rather chaotic scheme of private redress for breach of information duties