New Virtual Money: Law and Practice

In a world of fading borders, the Internet has become a regular method of buying and selling. However, technological and legal means of guaranteeing secure electronic transactions lag behind the increasing flexibility required by a flourishing ''virtual'' economy. Furthermore, as virtual money circulates it is susceptible to interception, processing and channeling by any number of corporate interests and public authorities. The questions arise: Who is going to control what? and why? There are, as yet, no firm answers.

This book sets the stage and takes the necessary first steps towards developing a reliable legal regime for virtual money. Its purpose is:

• to analyze the legal issues raised by Internet payment systems, and to explain clearly the solutions already adopted; and

• to discuss policy issues, with available hypotheses, raised by the convergence of financial services and information technology, and by the advent of virtual money

The authors provide a rigorous assessment of the appropriateness of the relevant existing legal instruments that regulate Internet payment systems, and focus in particular upon the rapidly increasing use of ''electronic cash'' - on smart cards or in the form of dematerialized electronic tokens - which behaves like cash, in that it can circulate between parties without the intermediation of a financial institution.

The New Virtual Money: Law and Practice is a vital building block of the robust regulatory system so urgently needed to protect users of virtual money. It is a crucial element in the knowledge base that will help lawyers, policymakers and business people successfully negotiate the radical transformation now under way in all sectors of business and industry.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Olivier Hance and Suzan Dionne Balz are attorneys who have collaborated for several years in their legal practices, notably in a major international consulting group, as well as in publishing and lecturing in the field of North American, European and international information technology law. In 1996, they co-authored Business and Law on the Internet (McGraw-Hill), which was translated into six languages. Their fields of interest also include public rights and liberties, legal theory, and the complex interactions between legal and scientific norms.

CONTENTS:

Preface. Introduction. PART 1: Methods of Payment in the Information Age. 1. Payment via an Electronic Payment System. 2. A New Economic and Technological Revolution: Towards the Convergence of Information Technologies and Financial Services. PART 2: Electronic Transactions and the Law. 1. The Law of Electronic Contracts. 2. The Law of Electronic Payments. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.