Achieving legal and business order in cyberspace: A report on global jurisdiction issues created by the Internet

The explosion of electronic commerce has dramatically increased the contact between buyers and sellers habitually resident in different states or coun tries and has, therefore, also dramatically increased the number of potenti al disputes in which jurisdictional issues may arise. The law of jurisdicti on historically has focused on where certain acts occurred; in cyberspace, such questions are difficult to resolve. Nonetheless, parties themselves ex ist in real space and may target others in known locations. While such targ eting is ordinarily thought of as the act of a seller, the search power of the Internet empowers buyers as well, allowing them to find a local, passiv e seller with ease. In light of such changes in classic jurisdictional assumptions, the Report begins by proposing certain solutions to various repeating jurisdictional q uestions. It then sets out and explains the changes, discusses the doctrina l framework for personal, prescriptive, and enforcement jurisdiction from t he points of view of the United States, the European Union, and Japan, and finally considers how changes and doctrine affect nine specific substantive law areas most frequently implicated by electronic commerce.