[Ecommerce] Global E-Comm Teleconferences - 10/2 and 10/8

[James Love]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [eglobal-list] Global E-Comm Teleconferences - 10/2 and 10/8
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 15:21:06 -0400
From: Bill Luddy <wjl@rh.edu>
To: eglobal-list@rh.edu



Good day, everyone.  Hal Burman of the State Department and  Co-Chair of
the ABA Business Law Cyberspace Law Committee's Global E-Commerce Policy
Subcommittee, has arranged for two teleconferences to discuss the
upcoming UNCITRAL Working Group on Electronic Commerce meetings.  These
teleconferences are an important opportunities to exchange views on the
issues to be discussed at UNCITRAL next month particularly in light of
the focus for the October Working Group session, i.e., reducing legal
barriers to global e-commerce, as noted below.

The comments made by the participants in the teleconferences last Winter
and Spring, and in other fora, were very helpful in defining the issues
of concern and for developing solutions and positions for the March
Working Group meetings (regarding e-contracting) and the UNCITRAL
Plenary Session last June.  It is hoped that these teleconferences will
be as productive.

The teleconferences are scheduled as follows:

         *Wednesday, October 2nd, 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM EDT (1500 GMT)

         Tuesday, October 8th, 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM EDT (1400 GMT).

*Everyone is invited to attend this open meeting.  We ask only that you
send an email directly to me (*_not_* the entire list) by Tuesday,
October 1st, indicating whether you will attend either or both
meetings.  My email address is _wjl@rh.edu_.

Your RSVP will help to assure that the there will be enough phone lines
to accommodate everyone including those who may be calling in from
outside the U.S.  Once we receive your response, we will forward the
dial-in number and the passcode for the session.


*_October Working Group Focus and Relevant Documents

_*At the UNCITRAL Plenary Sessions held in June, the Commission
requested that the Working Group focus its attention in October on the
legal barriers to global e-commerce.  This was one of several projects
that had been concurrently tasked to the Working Group by the
Commission.  In it's final Report of the June Plenary Session, which is
available at

         http://www.uncitral.org/english/sessions/unc/unc-35/A-57-17-e.pdf

the Commission discussed this at Paragraphs 205-208.  The Commission
noted in Paragraph 207 that, "*/The Commission requested the Working
Group to devote most of its time at its fortieth session, in October
2002, to a substantive discussion of various issues relating to legal
barriers to electronic commerce that had been raised in the
secretariat?s initial survey (A/CN.9/WG.IV/ WP.94)/*."

The UNCITRAL Secretariat Note referred to above is entitled, "*/Legal
aspects of electronic commerce - Legal barriers to the development of
electronic commerce in international instruments relating to
international trade/*."  This Note, WP.94e,  was reviewed by the Working
Group in March and is available on the UNCITRAL website at

         http://www.uncitral.org/english/workinggroups/wg_ec/wp-94e.pdf.

It contains an introductory analysis and then a preliminary review of
numerous conventions and multilateral treaties as to their "e-comm
friendliness" and other factors.  (Each treaty is succinctly reviewed in
a few paragraphs.) It also refers to earlier Working Papers on this topic.

Since last Spring, the UNCITRAL Secretariat has been diligently seeking
comments on WP.94e from governments, international organizations,
including organizations of the United Nations system
and NGOs.  These are collected in the Secretariat's Note
A/CN.9/WG.IV/WP.98 entitled, "*/Legal barriers to the development of
electronic commerce in international instruments relating to
international trade - Compilation of comments by Governments and
international organizations/*" and several Addenda.  These are available
at the UNCITRAL website at:

         WP.98
http://www.uncitral.org/english/workinggroups/wg_ec/wp-98-e.pdf

         Add.1 
http://www.uncitral.org/english/workinggroups/wg_ec/WP-98-add1e.pdf

         Add.2 
http://www.uncitral.org/english/workinggroups/wg_ec/WP-98-add2.pdf

Finally, Addendum 3 was just released today in all official UN
languages.  It contains, /inter alia/.,  the Comments of the U.S. to
WP.94.  It will be available at the UNCITRAL website very shortly and
articulates some preliminary suggestions for the discussions of the
Working Group and should be helpful to the discussions on the
teleconferences as well.

If I can provide any additionally information, please let me know.

   Bill Luddy

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Professor William J. Luddy, Jr., M.S., J.D.
Lally School of Management and Technology
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Hartford Campus
275 Windsor Street
Hartford, Connecticut  06120-2991, USA

         +1-860-548-2442 (Voice)
         +1-860-547-0866 (Facsimile)
               +1-800-433-4723 EXT. 2442

    Email:  wjl@rh.edu
<mailto:wjl@rh.edu>   Web: http://www.rh.edu/~wjl/

-- 
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James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:love@cptech.org
voice: 1.202.387.8030; mobile 1.202.361.3040