IP: TechDaily on Hague treaty negotiations

[David Farber <dfarber () earthlink net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: "James Love" <james.love () cptech org>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 19:35:07 
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: TechDaily on Hague treaty negotiations

Dave, this is an important and not encouraging development.  Jamie

---------------------
E-Commerce 
U.S. May Face Opposition On Narrow Jurisdictional Treaty
by William New 

National Journal's Technology Daily
http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/

The United States may find itself in the minority in pushing for a
narrow agenda at next week's meeting to discuss an international treaty
on jurisdiction in cross-border online transactions, officials said
Tuesday. 
     
Top officials working on a convention on commercial and civil judgments
being negotiated at The Hague Conference on Private International Law
will convene April 22-24 in the Netherlands. The officials are meeting
to decide whether the project should proceed, and if so, how. The
negotiation has been stuck since a three-week meeting last June ended in
disagreement. 

The United States favors moving forward on some less controversial
provisions within the broader draft treaty, according to the lead U.S.
official in the negotiation. 

"We would like the other members of the Hague Conference to focus on
those elements of the comprehensive draft that are achievable now and
forgo those other elements until the time is right to address them,"
said State Department lawyer Jeffrey Kovar, head of the U.S. delegation.
Kovar will attend the meeting next week. 

But in communications with other Hague-member governments in the past
week, it has become clear that support is building among most other
participating nations to proceed with the full text, a Bush
administration official said. 

Australia has been particularly strong in pushing that approach,
proposing a return to the original draft treaty that dates to 1999.
Canada and the European Union, and possibly Japan, also have signaled
support for a comprehensive treaty negotiation. 

The official said the United States likely would not sign the
comprehensive treaty as it is stands. But the prospect of being left out
of the treaty sent ripples through some interested parties Wednesday. 

"The worst outcome would be that we're not a part of it," one
private-sector observer said. "If the whole world has an agreement,
we're subject to it but don't have any say in its scope and
implementation." 

The United States would prefer to limit negotiations to basic rules on
recognition and enforcement, business-to-business contracts,
choice-of-forum clauses determining before online purchases the
jurisdiction of disputes, and physical torts, such as product liability.
A narrower draft would allow in-depth discussions on each area rather
than repeating past stalemates, one source said. 

More controversial issues include business-to-consumer contracts,
treatment of intellectual property issues, such as patents, trademarks
and copyrights, and the definition of residence. Torts on non-physical
issues, such as information, also get sticky. 

In a non-governmental meeting on the Hague treaty Tuesday at the
American Library Association, consumer groups showed concern about
standards of defamation in the treaty. Countries like China have been
criticized for using such standards to control free speech. 

Libraries expressed concern that their right to freely download
information for research purposes might be threatened under the
provisions on contracts. They are seeking an exception for such
"non-negotiated" contracts.

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