What a Local Internet Company Can Do About Legal Uncertainty in Cyberspace: A Policy Proposal on How to Deal with the International Jurisdictional, Judgment Enforcement, and Conflict of Law Problems Posed by the Internet

Abstract

Commissioner Mozelle W. Thompson leads the U.S. delegation to the particular committees of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development currently working on international e-business guidelines in their attempts to overcome "the differences between many European countries' systems of law and our own [...] in developing consensus of difficult issues like choice of law and jurisdiction." Accordingly, for the purposes of this very presentation, this project will first focus specifically on what domestic internet companies should know about jurisdiction, enforcement of judgements, and conflict of law issues in cyberspace when a dispute arises outside of the contractual sphere. Second, this presentation will suggest a way to think about law and cyberspace that may be better suited for the task of overcoming the legal uncertainty in cyberspace created by its current jurisdictional, conflict of law, and enforcement of judgements problems. Next, this presentation will brainstorm on how such a theory of approaching governance in cyberspace would work. Then, in section five, this presentation will suggest a policy proposal on how such an approach could be brought down to earth and made a reality. Lastly, in section six, the proposed policy will be applied to a hypothetical example (dealing with content regulation) in which the merits of the proposal's ability to overcome the jurisdictional, enforcement of judgments, and conflict of law problems posed by the Internet today will be assessed.