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GAZETTE
JULY/AUGUST 1990
T E L E B A N K I N G,
T E L E S H O P P I NG A N D T H E
LAW.
Edited by V. Poullet and C.P.V.
Vandenberghe [Kluwer. 1988, xi
+ 388 pp. DFI.162 or US Dollars
86]
F R E E D OM OF DATA F LOWS
A N D EEC LAW.
By Paul Hansen and others.
[Kluwer.1988. x + 131pp. DFI
101 of US Dollars 57]
A D V A N C ED T O P I CS OF LAW
A N D I N F O RMA T I ON
T E C H N O L O GY
Edited by C.P.V. Vandenberghe.
[Kluwer. 1989. xii + 260 pp.
DFL. 138 or US Dollars 74]
K N OWL E D GE B A S ED
S Y S T E MS IN LAW
By A.W. Koers and Others.
[Kluwer. 1989. xvi + 191 pp
DFL. 76 or US Dollars 41]
We are in the throes of a silent
revolution. The integration of com-
puters in the telecommunication
network described as digitisation
- the encoding, transformation
and transmission of any informa-
tion, voice, data, and visual
messages as bits - is transforming
the way people communicate.
Transaction services, such as home
shopping, home banking, and
electronic mail, will shortly be
available via the telephone.
The Commission of the European
Communities, Directorate General
X111 (Telecommunications, Infor-
mation, Industries and Innovation)
has established a Legal Advisory
Board on the Information Market
comprised of a number of experts
from each Member State. The Legal
Advisory Board was given the task
of analysing the legal conditions
pertaining to the creation and
development of a real common
information market taking into
account the possibility of specific
Community action and the barriers
which have arisen due to diverging
national legal approaches.
In December 1985, D.G. X111 of
the Commission requested the
Centre de Recherches en Informa-
tique et Droit of the Facultés
Universitaires de Namur in Belgium
and the Computer/Law Institute of
the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam,
to carry out a study of the legal
aspects of consumer-oriented
telebanking and teleshopping and
to bring recommendations for
action by the Community to the
attention of the Legal Advisory
Board on the Information Market.
Telebanking, Teleshopping and The
Law
is the fruit of this study which
is also the first in a new series of
books called Compu t e r / Law,
published by Kluwer Law and
Taxation Publications.
Prof. Guy P.V. Vanderberghe in
the preface to
Telebanking, Tele-
shopping and The Law
states that
the importance of the study lies in
the fact that consumer-oriented
telebanking and t e l eshopp i ng
create a set of new legal problems,
which present themselves in a
similar way in all Member States
but which are tackled differently in
such a way that might cause a
barrier to the Common Market.
Telebanking, Teleshopping and
The Law
sets out the factual
con t ext of t e l ebank i ng and
teleshopping. Then the legal issues
relating to evidence, signature,
liability, contractual problems,
privacy, competition, fraud and
private i n t e r na t i onal law are
discussed. A questionnaire pre-
sented to experts in every Member
State and their replies are published
in an annex. The expert consulted
in Ireland was Dr. Robert Clark,
Lecturer in Law, University College,
Dublin -
but desc r i bed as
belonging to the University of
Dublin. In fact, Dr. Robert Clark is
on the International Board of
Editors and is jointed (inter alia) by
the United K i ngdom Editor,
Professor Colin M. Campbell,
Professor of Jurisprudence at the
Queen's University in Belfast.
Freedom of Data Flows and
E.E.C. Law
contains the proceed-
ings of the 2nd Celim Conference.
The aim of Celim (The European
Commi t t ee
Lex
I n f o rma t i ca
Mercatoriaque) is to bring together
lawyers from all spheres and all
types of training working on issues
concerning business law, informa-
tion science law in its widest sense
and specifically international law in
the European context.
Advanced Topics of Law and
information Technology
deals in
part with the interaction between
law on the one hand and the
gathering, storage, distribution and
reporting of data, especially, but
not exclusively, by making use of
computer and telecommunication
technology on the other. In his
contribution, "Privacy and trans-
border data f l ow", Prof. Poullet
examines some recent legal issues
in this area, especially in the light
of the fact that through telecom-
munication, computer networks are
borderless. In his paper, Mr.
Kaspersen examines the "Stand-
ards for computer crime legisla-
tion". Professor Vivant writes on
"The Challenge of Computer Law".
Professor Spoor examines "Expert
Systems and Copy r i gh t ". Mr.
Me i j boom con t r i bu t es " Legal
Rights to Source Code". "Product
Liability for Software in Europe -
a Discussion on the E.C. Directive
of 25 July 1985" is the title of the
chapter c on t r i bu t ed by Mr.
Stuurman. " The Law of the Books
and the Law of t he F i l es"
(Professor Bing), "Legal Expert
Sys t ems" (Professor Martino),
"Knowledge Representation and
Legal Expert S y s t ems" (Mr.
Oskamp), "Hypo: A Precedent -
Based Legal Reasone r" (E.L.
Rissland and K.D. Ashley) are
among the titles of the remaining
chapters.
The aim of
Knowledge Based
Systems in Law
is to report on
research concerning theories and
methods for developing know-
ledge-based systems in law which
were conducted at the Faculty of
Law, University of Utrecht, the
Netherlands. This is the most
technical of the four books in the
present series. However, the
authors state honestly in the
preface that it is their intention to
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