Fresh call for global laws

By Keith Newman

The New Zealand Law Commission has again called on Apec to take a lead in developing new international laws covering everything from computer crimes to protecting e-commerce transactions.

It is absurd to leave each state to define its own part when a "seamless global whole" is required, says High Court Judge David Baragwanath, president of the Law Commission.

He has renewed his 1998 call for a coordinated approach to international law and wants a group of world experts to meet before Christmas to advise Apec and the international community on the best way forward.

He has offered the work of the New Zealand Law Commission, which released its latest e-commerce report last month - www.lawcom.govt.nz - as a guideline on how to remove the legal impediments to global electronic trade while protecting national interests.

Electronic commerce requires the cross-border ability to enforce contracts within 185 legal systems which are "barely on speaking terms with each other."

He says the current situation is like having incompatible railway gauges between states during the dawning of the age of steam.

While there is no impediment to communication of electronic messages through cyberspace, there needs to be clear rules, common systems of identification and authentication to conduct business, and assurances that confidentiality will be preserved.

However, he says he can find no evidence of systematic arrangements to ensure the major players are coordinating their activities.

"The experience of the Y2K problem shows what can happen if planning is left to someone else.

"What is plain is the colossal cost of lost opportunity if those in public authority fail to attack the issues in a coordinated fashion."

The Law Commission's work on the topic is being fed into law changes, including the Crime Bill about to come before Parliament, and could be a model for global legislation.

Apec is backing the United Nations Commission on Trade Law which is creating a model for civil law. The commission has also offered to facilitate meetings on how best to tackle the need for global legislation.