`Cyberspace' is the emerging invisible, intangible world of electronic information and processes stored at multiple interconnected sites. The digital revolution leads to `convergence' (of telecommunications, computer/Internet and broadcasting) and to dynamic multimedia value chains. Deregulation and competition are major driving forces in the new interactive electronic environment.
This volume contains normative proposals for `cyber'-regulation, including self-regulation, grounded on developments in the EU, US and the Far East, in international organisations (WTO, OECD, WIPO, ITU), in business fora, in NGOs, in the `Internet community' and in academic research.
The multi-actor (government, business, civil society) and multi-level analysis (subsidiarity) pertains e.g. to ex-ante and ex-post access-regulation, competition, network economics (external effects, essential facilities), public interest principles (human dignity, free speech, privacy, security), development and culture, consumer protection, cryptography, domain names and copyright.
Lawyers, regulators, business executives, investment bankers, diplomats, and civil society representatives need shared essentials of plurilateral `governance' to safeguard both competition and public interest objectives, at a scale congruent to `cyberspace', in the transition to an `international law of cooperation'.
` On the basis of a wealth of up-to-date information, K.W. Grewlich develops an approach to governance using an artful blend of law, economics, philosophy and political and sociological analysis. In sum, K.W. Grewlich [...] has the gift of clearly setting forth and comparing North American, European, German and French doctrines and approaches. '
Communications and Strategies, 37 (2000)
` ... it will prove a useful addition to many practitioners' book shelves, particularly in addressing some of the comparative law issues. '
International Business Lawyer, January 2001
` [t]he reader will find the book informative and steeped in comparative references to conditions in realspace and their regulations as well as discussions of policy considerations from economic, legal and technical angles. '
European Intellectual Property Review, 23:1 (2001)
` The book is an important and forward-looking work. It will inspire and fascinate all those who are interested in contemporary and future communications law issues, and is highly recommendable for governments, universities, lawyers, policy-makers, international organizations, as well as for practitioners in the fields of international economic law and communications law. '
Jürgen Cloppenburg in Zeitschrift für Luft- und Weltraumrecht, 2000:2
