Susan Meek – författare

The 1999 volume of the Comparative Law Yearbook of lnternational Business contains sections on Company Law, Dispute Resolution, Employment Law, Insolvency Law, Intellectual Property Law, Taxation and Finance and other general commercial issues. There are a number of chapters which tackle cross-border issues, such as taxation, jurisdiction and arbitration, while others concentrate on specific geographical areas, such as the Asia-Pacific Region.

Some authors explore problems in the workplace, including the reduction of the workforce and incidents of racial discrimination within it, issues of which all employers need to be aware. Also examined are those subjects which are ever present in the life of a business, among them, bankruptcy and insolvency, procurement, intellectual property, investment, contracts and other matters of company law.

Other chapters comprise an in-depth look at the Vienna Convention on the lnternational Sale of Goods, a highly specialized discussion of patent second medical use claims, an explanation of how criminal sanctions are being applied to crimes against the environment, a report on the devaluation and dollarization of an economy and an interesting insight into the effect of a nation''s culture and traditions upon its legal system.

This volume of the Yearbook contains chapters on a wide variety of issues which arise regularly in the commercial world, but it also contains discussions on a number of more specialized topics. These will not only be of use to the practitioners and business people involved in those areas, but will make extremely interesting reading for those who are not and provide an introduction to subjects which they may find useful in the future.

The General Editor Dennis Campbell is Director of the Center for lnternational Legal Studies, Salzburg, Austria. He is assisted by a distinguished Board of Advisors drawn from leading academics and practitioners in Europe, North America and the Far East.

In the event that damage is caused as a result of the year 2000 problem, who will be responsible for compensating the victims of such damage? Should the developers, vendors or licensors of non-compliant software be held liable if their products do not continue to function correctly through the change in the millennium? Should those who provide "fixes" to the Bug which do not work properly be accountable for damage caused? Do end-users have a duty to ensure that their software is Year 2000 compliant? These questions, among others, will not be fully answered until the courts have had an opportunity to rule upon disputes which will no doubt arise.

Other matters to be considered include the type of agreement that has been entered into between the parties, which rules will therefore apply and what defenses, if any, may be available to the defendant. Insurance is also a big issue. Many insurance companies are stating that damage resulting from the Millennium Bug will not be covered by existing policies, and defenses such as force majeure and act of God have been raised. What will happen when these issues come to litigation remains to be seen.

This special issue of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business discusses the legal implications of the Millennium Bug in various countries. It describes the way in which agreements relating to software are viewed by different jurisdictions and the possible attribution of liability for damage caused by the Bug.