International Investment Law Journal
Volume 4, Issue 1, February 2024

Table of Contents

• Contents
  

  
  

• Associate professor Cristina Elena POPA TACHE
  
  Abstract:

  Communications and new technology law is the academic endeavor through which legal professionals support education and prepare new generations for the technological future. They will carry forward this experience in economic development, especially in international investments that use technologies in a majority proportion. Today there is no business that does not use the Internet or technological products and international investment law is already creating a ramification in terms of rights and obligations. Will we be dealing with reforms of specific principles and standards? Will the narrow framework of monodisciplinarity be overcome in favour of creation and transdisciplinarity as tools for regulating all derivative aspects? Will the influence of strategic and technological developments on the meaning and interpretation of international law itself be observed? The arguments and conclusions of this paper are meant to emphasize the importance of understanding reality, going through the appropriate meta-analysis filtered through the ethos of the researcher. For the elaboration of this article, the method of specific scientific introspection correlated with the transdisciplinary type method based on primary and secondary sources were used.
  Keywords:international investment, society, transition, digitalisation, international law, transdisciplinarity.
  JEL Classification:F50, K33, O30
  1. The New International Triangle: Human Rights-Digitalization-Security
      Page 4
  
  
• Assistant professor Dimitrios DEVETZIS; PhD. candidate Simos SAMARAS
  
  Abstract:

  The widespread use of e-commerce platforms poses new questions to the law maker and law enforcer. The mere definition of a platform is obscured by notions such as Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. A potential personification necessitates an exact description of legal personhood as a prerequisite. As a result, a more conventional treatment of a platform reveals its very nature as a service and leads to further problematics concerning the supplier liable to users, especially in the case of the undisclosed agency, the rights holder and the law applicable to contractual and extra-contractual obligations. The issued points are of a growing importance since the use of AI establishes itself as a common cause of liability, often contrary to public policy provisions, including personal data and other personality rights protection.
  Keywords:AI, e-commerce, personality, personal data, platform, private international law.
  JEL Classification:K11, K15, K24
  2. E-Commerce Platforms and Liability in the AI Era
      Page 18
  
  
• Professor Ionel DIDEA; Legal advisor PhD. Diana Maria ILIE
  
  Abstract:

  We have proposed to carry out this article starting from the premise of a transdisciplinary research, reflecting an analysis of insolvency law as “metamorphosed” by the conglomerate of social, economic and political elements and events, which, in reality, permanently “roll” this “legislative snowball” found in the dynamics of globalization and Europeanization, context in which the classical branches of law are resized by acquiring mixed characteristics. The penetration into the realm of transdisciplinarity reflects nothing but the need to adapt the norms of law to the diversity and dynamism of developments, “mutations” and global challenges. The core of our research concerns insolvency law, a law that has reached the stage of remodeling in a global economic context, being permanently ”imprinted” by international and regional legal instruments. Enjoying a “thirsty” field of accelerated reform, we will try to synthesize legislative novelties such as the proposal of EU Directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of insolvency law and we will explore restructuring benchmarks in the USA, India, Dominican Republic or Saudi Arabia, with often “crossed” visions on insolvency regimes, in order to outline the international picture of the restructuring market in 2023 but also the prospects for 2024, in the idea of identifying coherent measures capable of mitigating the socio-economic consequences at the intersection of contemporary crises, crises that have profoundly changed the approach of the insolvency field. Last but not least, we will stop at one of the key dimensions of the new directive on the EU agenda, namely the creation of a special insolvency legal regime for SMEs, already outlined internationally by UNCITRAL. Beyond the draft directive still on the negotiating table and uncertainties, an initiative that is part of the Commission’s priority objective of strengthening the capital markets union (CMU) with the motto “Make the outcome of cross-border investments more predictable in terms of insolvency proceedings”, beyond the effervescence of international and European insolvency legal instruments, we must reflect on the importance of divergences in the regulatory approach to insolvency as an obstacle to cross-border investments, a firm concern and commitment being needed in order to harmonize legislation and streamline national insolvency procedures insolvency. Let us not forget that effective and harmonised insolvency rules support efficient capital allocation, economic recovery from recessions and therefore economic growth in each country, with insolvency being a key criterion for cross-border investors.
  Keywords: cross-border insolvency, trans-disciplinary vision, socio-economic analysis, cross-border investments, integration, harmonization and legislative innovation, global practices, benchmarks of the restructuring and insolvency framework.
  JEL Classification:K22, K33, K35
  3. Increasing Legal Certainty for Cross - Border Investments by Making National Insolvency Procedures More Efficient and Effective
      Page 30
  
  
• PhD. candidate Leonidas SOTIROPOULOS
  
  Abstract:

  Maritime transport is an intensively and rapidly developing sector of a particularly international dimension. European shipping plays a key role in the development of the maritime industry in European Union as it strengthens its economy, strategy and negotiating power. The European Commission, to achieve this objective, seeks to promote a common maritime policy and create a regulatory framework. Technological development has historically challenged contemporary shipping laws. This paper pursues to provide an approach of the legal dimension of autonomous ships. The dogmatic legal method is followed, assisted by the socio-economic approach method. Firstly, the role of European Maritime Policy and its objectives are discussed. Secondly, regulatory and legislative initiatives of the use of autonomous ships worldwide are analysed. Due to the particular nature of maritime law, special attention is given to the issues of liability arising from the use of autonomous vessels. The article intends to offer an original contribution by examining the aspects of new technologies such as Autonomous Vessels and the challenges they raise in the global and European community. It concludes that the integration and regulation of Unmanned Ships by the European Maritime Policy would promote a high level of safety and development in maritime transports.
  Keywords: autonomous vessels, European maritime policy.
  JEL Classification:K33
  4. European Maritime Policies and the Dynamic of Autonomous Vessels
      Page 71
  
  

• Assistant professor Oana ADĂSCĂLIŢEI
  

  Abstract:

  The article aims to analyse the shipper's liability in international contracts of carriage of goods under the Rotterdam Rules in comparison with his liability under the 1968 Hague Visby Rules and the 1978 Hamburg Rules. The shipper's obligations are based on the previous provisions contained in the Hague-Visby Rules 1968 and the Hamburg Rules 1978. The Rotterdam Rules introduce new obligations, such as the duty of cooperation between the shipper and the carrier of goods, the shipper's duty to pack and label a container in such a way as not to cause damage to persons or goods, or the duty to mark or label dangerous goods in accordance with any law, regulation, or other requirements of public authorities. The notion of "shipper" is defined differently from the Hamburg Rules of 1978. The Rotterdam Rules add the notion of "documentary shipper", a completely new concept adapted to the needs of international FOB contracts. There are no substantial differences between the Hague Visby Rules 1968 and the Hamburg Rules 1978. The obligations and liability of the shipper are better structured. A number of important issues, such as the shipper's liability to third parties or the shipper's liability for loss or damage caused by delay, remain unregulated by the Rotterdam Rules.
  Keywords: shipper; documentary shipper; strict liability; Hague-Visby Rules 1968; Hamburg Rules 1978; Rotterdam Rules.
  JEL Classification:K33
  5. Shipper’s Obligations under the Rotterdam Rules. A Comparison with the Hague-Visby Rules 1968 and the Hamburg Rules 1978
      Page 83
  
  
• Assistant professor Sónia De CARVALHO
  
  Abstract:

  The origins of modern competition policies date back to the end of the 19th century in the United States of America, as a reaction to the growth of certain companies and their economic power, which was the result of economic development and the consequent increase in competition that shaped American society in the second half of the 19th century. Companies began to organise themselves into large groups, establishing coalition relationships with each other and becoming subject to the same control, which, because it was exercised through fiduciary contracts, justified the use of the term trust to designate these corporate structures. The legislation that came to control these groups of companies, resizing companies and preventing excesses, was therefore called antitrust. In the second half of the 19th century, a number of factors allowed an increase in the size of companies. The last part of the 19th century was characterized by low and unstable prices, overwhelmed by two serious economic crises (1873-79 and 1883-86) which led some economists to adopt the term Great Depression to designate this period in American history, in a parallel with the recession that hit Europe at the same time, which was not unrelated to the need for the economy to adjust to the conditions resulting from the American Civil War, including the decrease in savings. It is in this context that companies, in order to reduce price wars and market instability, began to organise themselves into trusts and cartels. Price stability was thus achieved at the expense of the end consumer and producers, including farmers and small industrialists and traders, who were subject to discriminatory and unfair practices and restrictive agreements that strengthened the monopolies of large companies, eliminating small business competitors and imposing unfavorable conditions on those who had to negotiate with them. This small business was at the origin of a public outcry that reached its zenith in the last decades of the century with the passing of various state antitrust laws and the Sherman Act. In this paper, we aim at demonstrating the origins of at US antitrust policy by examining the Sherman Act. Therefore, it is pertinent to begin to trace the evolution of antitrust policy in Common Law. As we will conclude the US antitrust policy has been ever since forged by economic ideology.
  Keywords: antitrust, Sherman Act, competition policy, commercial law.
  JEL Classification:K22
  6. The Roots of Antitrust Policy in the United States' Sherman Act
      Page 92
  
  
• Associate professor Maria João MIMOSO
  
  Abstract:

  This article aims to give a general overview of the way in which international contracts are regulated within the European Union, problematizing the implications of the conflictual approach in the designation of the applicable law. For a better contextualization of the problem, we will analyze, primarily, the jurisdiction rules of Regulation Brussels I bis - Regulation (EU) No. 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (recast) - only in contractual matters, and then the conflict rules of the Rome I Regulation – Regulation (EC) No. 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the applicable law to contractual obligations - maxime articles 3 and 4.This methodology is justified due to conflicts of jurisdiction; competence standards of the courts (including the possibility of the parties entering into pacts which assign jurisdiction) positioning themselves, chronologically, before the issue of the law applicable to the situation/conflict to be resolved (this by determining the principle of autonomy of the parties in choosing the applicable law to the contract or, in the absence of choice, through the “supplementary criterion”). Finally, we will seek to discuss the possibility of, under the principle of autonomy, the parties referring to non-state law and what its implications are.
  Keywords: European Union, international contracts, competent courts, applicable law.
  JEL Classification:K22, K33
  7. International Contracts in the EU Conflictus Iurisdictionum et Conflictuum Legum. What Future?
      Page 111