Electronic commerce is here to stay. No matter how big the dot-com crisis was or how far the e-entrepreneurs' shares fell in the market, the fact remains that there is still confidence in electronic trading. At least it would appear that investors are confident in e-companies again. However, not only trust of venture capitalists is of importance--consumers also have to have faith in on-line business. After all, without consumers there is no e-business. Interacting lawyers, technicians and economists are needed to create a trustworthy electronic commerce environment. To achieve this environment, thorough and inter-disciplinary research is required and that is exactly what this book is about. Researchers of the project Enabling Electronic Commerce from the Dutch universities of Tilburg and Eindhoven have chosen a number of e-topics to elaborate on trust from their point of view. This volume makes clear that the various disciplines can and will play a role in developing conditions for trust and thus contribute to a successful electronic market.

Governments across the world have recognised the potential of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to bring about fundamental renewal in not only government and public sector processes, but also their relationship with civil societal groups, the private sector, citizens, and various other actors. ICT provides enormous opportunities to increase efficiency and effectiveness in all kinds of policy sectors, and promises a real dialogue between policy makers and the public. This second edition of the prescient and influential work first published in 2001 includes updated texts of several chapters from the earlier edition as well as various chapters, among them a number of country reports written for the e-government session of the of the 17th World Congress of Comparative Law. In addition to visions of the concept of electronic government, it provides examples of already active electronic governance by including various chapters on developments in the United States (both federal and state), the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Italy, Denmark, and the Netherlands. It draws valuable lessons (cross-national, between policy sectors and across administrations) from the design of electronic government and from evaluations of electronic government in practice. Aspects of e-government covered in the second edition include the following: government initiatives such as e-publication, online filing (including e-procurement and courts e-filing); 'e-democracy' features such as e-voting, e-participation, e-consultation and e-petitioning; benefits of government use of such expanding technologies as global positioning systems, smartcards, and biometrics; benefits to citizens services such as social security and services in the health care sector; applications to the judicial system and law enforcement; differences between developments and policy initiatives in various countries; and, obstacles and dilemmas touching upon security, surveillance, identity fraud, liability, intellectual property, free access, national security, equality, and privacy. Especially in its close attention to the interaction between legal, practical, public administration and ethical obstacles and dilemmas, "Designing E- Government, Second Edition" is of enormous value to practitioners, officials, and policymakers concerned with the legal implications related to the design and implementation of e-government, and with the present and future challenges of this endeavour.

Legal problems abound in the information society. Electronic commerce, copyright, privacy, illegal and harmful content, taxes, wiretapping governments face an enormous challenge to meet the advent of the Internet and ICT with a flexible, up-to-date, and adequate legal framework. Yet one aspect makes this challenge even more daunting: internationalization. Law is still to a great extent based on nation states, but the information society is above all a borderless and global society. Territoriality and national sovereignty clash with the need for a global approach to address ICT-law issues. Should states leave everything to the global market, or should they intervene to protect vital national interests? If they create regulations, should these reflect the rules of the physical world? How can one enforce national rules in a world where acts take place somewhere in Cyberspace? This text presents the positions on these issues of the governments of the Netherlands, Germany, France, the UK, and the US, as well as of international organisations. How do they think about co-regulation, law enforcement, harmonization, international co-operation, and alternative dispute resolution? How do they deal with applicable law and online contracts, privacy, international liability of Internet providers, and electronic signatures? What are the implications of the European Electronic Commerce Directive and the draft Crime in Cyberspace convention? Any legal framework that is to fit the global information society must take into account internationalization. This volume shows to what extent governments are meeting this challenge.