Regulation for E-payment Systems - Analytical Approaches Beyond Private Ordering

Technology-driven payment instruments and services are facilitating the development of e-commerce; however, security concerns beleaguer their implementation, particularly in developing countries. This article considers the limits of private ordering in the regulation of e-payment systems. It uses Nigeria to exemplify a developing country that is increasingly pushing for the adoption of a regulatory framework for e-payment systems based on private ordering. It argues that, although technical standards and self-regulation by the financial industry are important, law is an essential regulatory mechanism that is largely absent. The article proposes that law be used as a mechanism to set and compel compliance with technical and industry standards, thus building trust, catering to public interest concerns and legitimizing the regulatory process

Critical Perspectives on Cybersecurity: A Case Study of Legal and Regulatory Responses to Identity-related Cybercrimes in Electronic Payment Systems in Nigeria

The thesis critically examines the challenges of implementing cybersecurity in Nigeria. It focuses in particular on identity-related cybercrimes in e-payment systems. The thesis follows two broad lines of investigation. First, it examines how the convergence of telecommunications and banking services create a multi-stakeholders’ e-payment service provider system and the implications of this convergence for security and regulation of e-payment systems. Second, the thesis examines the societal, institutional and political considerations that affect the legal and regulatory responses to identity-related cybercrimes or that explain the lack of such responses. The research reveals that social perceptions of cybercrimes and political interference in law making process, as well as lack of proper identity management systems are crucial factors which affect the development and effectiveness of cybersecurity laws in Nigeria. The research also reveals that policy proposals for cybersecurity have focused extensively on criminal legislation and that this approach has marginalised the roles of data protection and identity management laws in preventing identity-related cybercrimes. The thesis argues that current self-regulatory initiatives in the Nigerian e-payment industry are inadequate due to the multi-stakeholders’ nature of electronic transactions. Using Lessig’s theory of modalities of regulation as a theoretical framework, the thesis highlights the primacy of laws in defining privacy and security standards as well as technical standards for the protection of users of e-payment services. The thesis however concludes that although laws are crucial, and cybercrimes are global, the development of cybersecurity laws must be moderated by an understanding of the legal and regulatory challenges as well as the socio-cultural and political factors in Nigeria. The thesis makes specific recommendations for developing laws and policies on cybersecurity in Nigeria

Nigeria’s electoral progress: insights and lessons from India’s e-voting journey

India’s E-Voting system exemplifies the synergy between technological innovation and legal flexibility. Challenges with paper ballots in the late 1970s led to evoting adoption, and amendments to the Representation of the People Act 1951 empowered the Election Commission of India (ECI) to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). This integration of technology and legal structures sets a benchmark for Nigeria's electoral system. This paper argues that balancing technological dependency and legal oversight is crucial, with the judiciary playing a pivotal role in the transition from paper-based to technology-driven electoral processes

Legal framework for small autonomous agricultural robots

Legal structures may form barriers to, or enablers of, adoption of precision agriculture management with small autonomous agricultural robots. This article develops a conceptual regulatory framework for small autonomous agricultural robots, from a practical, self-contained engineering guide perspective, sufficient to get working research and commercial agricultural roboticists quickly and easily up and running within the law. The article examines the liability framework, or rather lack of it, for agricultural robotics in EU, and their transpositions to UK law, as a case study illustrating general international legal concepts and issues. It examines how the law may provide mitigating effects on the liability regime, and how contracts can be developed between agents within it to enable smooth operation. It covers other legal aspects of operation such as the use of shared communications resources and privacy in the reuse of robot-collected data. Where there are some grey areas in current law, it argues that new proposals could be developed to reform these to promote further innovation and investment in agricultural robots

Fintech Regulation in UK

1. Introduction. – 2. E-Payments, e-money and Virtual Currencies. – 2.1. E-payments. – 2.2. E-money. – 2.3. Virtual Currency. – 3. The state of digital lending. – 3.1. Initial coin offerings. – 3.2. P2P Lending and Invoice Trading. – 4. Financial Services. – 4.1. Smart contracts. – 4.2. Robo-advisers. – 4.3. Algorithmic Trading and Market Automation. – 4.4. Crypto Hedge Fund

Personalised Medicine and a Data Revolution: Hope and Peril

This chapter examines the challenges posed by technological breakthroughs, including the complexity of data, and in particular the role to be given to consent that would provide transparency and foster patients’ trust in the development of personalized medicine. Personalized medicine is one of the most promising approaches to tackling diseases that have thus far eluded effective treatments or cures. “Personalised medicine fundamentally relies on the successful digitisation of patient records, other healthcare data sets, and increasingly ‘citizen-generated’ health-related data”. Without a regulatory framework and guidance on how best to design a successful clinical trial for personalized therapy, personalized medicine developers risk presenting suboptimal evidence about stratification options. Widespread data sharing will radically accelerate personalized medicine, making discovery and treatment more efficient. Transparency about data practices is essential not just as a fundamental element of privacy, but it is also a key to engendering trust, which in turn is critical to the adoption of personalized medicine

Next Generation Privacy

In recent years, research within and outside the European Union (EU) has focused on the expanding scope of personal data. The analysis provided has primarily supported the conclusions that in time, personal data will become so ubiquitous that the EU data protection law would become meaningless, unreasonable, or even discredited and ignored. Notwithstanding these criticisms, EU law is promoted as the ‘gold standard' for data protection laws and the law, including its definition of personal data, is being rapidly adopted by many non-EU countries. The objective of this article is to analyse the concept of personal data under EU law and to explore its continued relevance within a data protection framework that is rapidly globalised and in which technology is continuously evolving. The article argues that far from reflecting a universal notion of data protection, the EU law and particularly its definition of personal data reflects a perception of privacy that is peculiarly European. It further argues that recent developments in technology call for a re-examination of the concept of personal data and a more critical approach by countries with nascent data protection regimes. The article proposes the ‘objective risk of contextual harm’ as a new approach for formulating an alternative definition of personal data. It concludes that this approach better articulates the construction of data protection as a social good and a mechanism for (consumer) protection