Topic 11: Jurisdiction, Conflict of law and Dispute Settlement
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We have already seen that a recurring feature of legal issues on the web is that the web is a world wide network whereas laws are territorial. One of the central issues that could affect e-transactions is in determining which laws of which country govern a contract, and which courts have jurisdiction over any dispute. The law recognises that the courts of one country may have to apply the laws of another country, and evidence is brought to establish what these laws are.
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Jurisdiction

Within the EU, the rules on jurisdiction are laid down by the Brussels Regulation 44/2001. This regulation entered into force on 1st March 2002. The Regulation extends to 76 Articles and is designed to be comprehensive in scope. It applies to all civil and commercial matters, with the exception or revenue, customs or administrative matters. It also does not apply to family law, insolvency, social security matters or arbitration.

The general rule is that persons domiciled in one member State shall be sued in that member State’s courts.

Under Article 5, special jurisdiction rules alter the general jurisdictional rules.

In the case of contracts, the courts where the cont英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】ract is to be performed will have jurisdiction. In the case of goods and services, the courts where the goods or services were delivered/provided or should have been delivered/provided will have jurisdiction.

Under the law of delict the place will be where the harmful event occurred.

In cases of joint defendants/defenders, a person can also be sued in the country where the other defendants/defenders are based.

Section 4 relates to consumer contracts.
Such contracts are defined as contracts where the person is contracting outside his/her trade or profession and he/she has contracted with a person who pursues a commercial or professional activity in the member State of the consumer’s domicile or indeed directs activities to that member State. This provision is highly controversial and as such opens up the possibility of companies being sued in foreign courts since there website has been deemed to be directed at consumers in another member State. To avoid this risk, companies can decide to restrict access to their website, by requiring the input of a geographical details, only displaying the website in the language of the home State [this argument can work well for the Netherlands/Greece and Finland but is of no practical benefit for Irish and British companies since English is the international language of the internet] or making it clear on the website that the website i 本文来自：英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】