[free-sklyarov] [Fwd: [Hague-jur-commercial-law] EC consultation on the Hague treaty on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments]

[Lars Gaarden]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Hague-jur-commercial-law] EC consultation on the Hague treaty 
on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 14:12:10 -0400
From: James Love <love at cptech.org>
Organization: http://www.cptech.org
To: Hague Convention list <hague-jur-commercial-law at venice.essential.org>

EC consultation on the Hague treaty on Jurisdiction and Foreign
Judgments

*  The European Commission is finally doing a public consultation on the
proposed Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments.  The
proposed (but not firm) meeting date is October 24 in Brussels, and the
deadline for signing up to testify is October 15.  People can also
submit written comments.  Everything can be done by email to:
mailto:JAI-coop-jud-civil at cec.eu.int

*   It is expected that the music, movie, software and other e-commerce
businsses will turn up in force.  Copyright owners are expected to push
to have copyright included in the convention.  There should be a
difference of views expressed on inclusion of copyrights, patents and
trademarks, as well as speech related civil litigation, including
defamation and libel, plus a host of other issues.

*  FMI, http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/hague.html
         http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/badly.html
         http://www.cptech.org/ecom/jurisdiction/whatyoushouldknow.html
         http://www.hcch.net/e/members/members.html

*  It is important that people who have concerns about the inclusion of
speech and intellectual property in the convention make their views
known.  If the convention is widely adopted and includes intellectual
property, European citizens will be subject to restrictive and broad
e-commerce and software patents issued in the US, Japan and other
countries, the USA and other countries DMCA style legislation, and more
generally, the most restrictive global IP regimes, which will limit the
public's rights even more than whatever national laws currently exist
(the "weakest link" problem).   If speech related torts are included,
the defamation laws in China, Jordan, Egypt, the UK and elsewhere will
have global reach.

*   Persons who participate in the consultation should also address the
need to protect the public from one-sided and unreasonable "click-on"
contracts, such as the recent Microsoft EULA for Frontpage, what says,
for example:

    "You may not use the Software in connection with any
     site that disparages Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia,
     or their products or services, infringe any intellectual
     property or other rights of these parties, violate any
     state, federal or international law, or promote racism,
     hatred or pornography."

For more examples of click-on contract terms, see:
http://www.cptech.org/ecom/ucita/licenses/

*   To sign-up to testify, send an email note to:
JAI-coop-jud-civil at cec.eu.int

   Jamie Love <love at cptech.org>

-------- Original Message --------
Commission Hearing on the Draft Convention of the Conference of the
Hague on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial
Matters

Deadline to apply:  October 15, 2001

Provisional date for the Hearing: 24 October 2001

at the Charlemagne Building, Rue de la Loi, 170 - 1040 Brussels

To attend, a short registration form is available at:			
http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/unit/civil/audition10_01/en/index.htm
Please complete this form in BLOCK LETTERS and e-mail it
(JAI-coop-jud-civil at cec.eu.int) or fax it (+32/2-299.64.57) before 15
October  2001

Written answers to questions (feel free to answer only a few):
http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/unit/civil/audition10_01/en/index.htm
should be email to:
JAI-coop-jud-civil at cec.eu.int or fax it (+32/2-299.64.57 before the
hearing.

The First Diplomatic Conference in June 2001, produced an "Interim Text"
(available at: http://www.hcch.net/e/workprog/jdgm.html) which contains
many options and alternatives for issues of concerns for consumers.
There had been several informal meetings of experts on E-commerce and
intellectual property related issues but these questions were found to
be difficult and controversial.  There was little consensus on many
other issues such as consumer and employment contracts.  Thus, the
General Affairs and Policy Commission of the Hague Conference decided to
defer to January 2002 the decision concerning the continuation of the
negotiations.  Consultations are to be undertaken between now and then
to determine the preconditions for the conclusion of the negotiations
relating to both the substance and the method and timetable for future
negotiations.

In this context, the Commission is organizing a hearing in Brussels to
cover the latest status of the Convention.  The questionnaire include
among other topics: the need for such a Convention, the proposed
structure of the Convention, its  scope, general rule of jurisdiction,
choice of court, contracts concluded with consumers, employment
contracts, torts, patent and trademark rights, copyrights, provisionnal
and protective measures and relationship between the Hague Convention
and European instruments.

Note: the agenda has not been finalized yet but we know it will be a
day-long hearing with probably a few speakers addressing selected
issues.
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