Challenges of the Internet to Society and Legislative Policy Choices: A Research Report on E-commerce Legislation

Author: Gao Fuping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: As human society enters the information network era, the digitization and networking of information bring both opportunities and challenges to all societies. E-commerce, e-government, virtual communities, and other emerging fields are reshaping the operational models and behavioral patterns of the entire society. To promote the development of e-commerce and e-government, many countries and the international community have formulated numerous policies and new legal regulations. The Chinese government also places great importance on informatization, aiming to drive industrialization through informatization and e-government through e-commerce. Moreover, the pace of e-commerce legislation has been accelerated, particularly with the impending introduction of the Electronic Signature Regulations (Law). Against this backdrop, studying the fundamental principles and trends of foreign legislation is of great significance for China to establish a legal framework to address new challenges in e-commerce and e-government. In the fervent pursuit and embrace of the internet's challenges to traditional business, I spearheaded the establishment of the Institute of E-commerce Law at East China University of Political Science and Law, dedicating myself to research in this new field. Simultaneously, I served as the Secretary-General of the Policy and Law Committee of the China E-commerce Association, striving to bridge the gap between the government, academia, and the business community. These two institutions have become platforms for my research and organization of e-commerce law studies.
As a global legal issue, the study of e-commerce policies and laws is fundamentally a research on response strategies. This involves examining the challenges and problems that networks and e-commerce pose to human society and how humanity responds to such challenges. For this reason, I place great emphasis on e-commerce policy and law research, striving to study foreign legislative advancements while closely monitoring domestic e-commerce practices and applications. Through academic research and issue investigations, I aim to genuinely advance China's e-commerce legislation process. The six reports published in this collection focus on e-commerce and e-government, addressing the key issues arising in the process of networking and informatization. These reports reflect the latest legislative trends in e-commerce among major countries and international organizations worldwide, providing rich and comprehensive data on the newest developments in global legislation. They include both introductions to foreign legislation and empirical studies on China's e-commerce models and judicial practices, offering significant theoretical value and practical guidance. In addition to the six reports, four essays have been compiled, all of which are important papers on legislative policies.
The impact of the internet on business, government, and social affairs is profound and far-reaching, and its influence on law is universal and pervasive. In other words, all legal disciplines will be affected to varying degrees by the development of the internet, which may revise, alter traditional rules within these disciplines and even give rise to new ones. Therefore, the study of e-commerce law also exhibits this diffusion, and research currently grouped under the umbrella of "e-commerce law" or "cyber law" (or similar names) will permeate various disciplines. Perhaps the highest of e-commerce and cyber law research is when its findings are absorbed by traditional disciplines, leading to their eventual decline. Thus, to ensure the research continues in a sustained and meaningful way, I plan to organize a series of publications under the theme of "The Impact of the Internet on Law": Network · Business · Law (Series), with each volume dedicated to a specific topic, taking the form of either monographs or collections of essays. The six reports and essays included here serve as the inaugural volume of this series. I also hope to use this as a platform or opportunity to invite more dedicated scholars to join, transforming this series into an authoritative work on the exploration of cyber and e-commerce law.