Owing to a tremendous progress of information technology we have faced a great change of a society. This change has happened to almost all of a society. As a result intangible goods are also included as a major concern in international trade. We may say U.S. is one of the countries transaction of software is the most flourishing. I have tried to classified the cases of software transaction in U.S. into five groups. As a result I have known the UCC had been applied to the almost transaction of standard software. However UCC had not been applied to custom software and data processing. In these days UCITA which is very similar to a previous proposal UCC 2B has been presented. This is a contract law that would apply to computer software, multimedia products, and databases. It has been designed to create a uniform commercial contract law for those products. Now therefore we should make observation of a tendency about transaction of software in U.S. The reason is that we pay attention to the symbol and dormant power of U.S. in international trade.

The international sale contract is the central contracts in export-import transactions. A good sale contract or set of general conditions of sale will cover all the principal elements of the transaction, so that uncertainties are avoided. The parties' respective duties as concern the payment mechanism, transport contract and insurance responsibilities, inter alia, will all be clearly detailed in the contract. The following key clauses should be included in international contracts of sale and general conditions of sale: ${\bullet}$ preamble ${\bullet}$ identification of parties ${\bullet}$ description of goods ${\bullet}$ price and payment conditions ${\bullet}$ delivery periods and conditions ${\bullet}$ inspection of the goods - obligations and limitations ${\bullet}$ quantity or quality variations in the products delivered ${\bullet}$ reservation of title and passing of property rights ${\bullet}$ transfer of risk - how accomplished ${\bullet}$ seller's warranties and buyer's complaints ${\bullet}$ assignment of rights ${\bullet}$ force majeure clause and hardship clause ${\bullet}$ requirement that amendments and modifications be in writing ${\bullet}$ choice of law ${\bullet}$ choice of dispute resolution mechanism Under most systems of law, a party can be excused from a failure to perform a contract obligation which is caused by the intervention of a totally unforeseeable event, such as the outbreak of war, or an act of God such as an earthquake or hurricane. Under the American commercial code (UCC) the standard for this relief is one of commercial impracticability. In contrast, many civil law jurisdictions apply the term force majeure to this problem. Under CISG, the standard is based on the concept of impediments to performance. Because of the differences between these standards, parties might be well advised to draft their own force majeure, hardship, or excusable delays clause. The ICC publication, "Force Majeure and Hardship" provides a sample force majeure clause which can be incorporated by reference, as well as a hardship clause which must be expressly integrated in the contract. In addition, the ICC Model provides a similar, somewhat more concise formulation of a force majeure clause. When the seller wishes to devise his own excusable delays clause, he will seek to anticipate in its provision such potential difficulties as those related to obtaining government authorisations, changes in customs duties or regulations, drastic fluctuations in labour, materials, energy, or transportation prices, etc.

With the current evolution from paper to electronic records the documentary credit market has been looking to ICC to provide guidance in this transition. To allow bankers and traders to familiarize themselves with this trend, eUCP has come into force from April 1st 2002. The eUCP provides definitions to allow current UCP terminology to accommodate the presentation of the equivalent of paper documents electronically and to provide necessary rules to allow the UCP and eUCP to work together. It is important to understand that many of the Articles of the UCP are not impacted by the presentation of electronic equivalent of paper documents and do not require any changes to accommodate electronic presentation. When read together the UCP and the eUCP will be broad enough to allow for developing practice in this area. The eUCP is not a revision of the UCP. The UCP will continue to provide the industry with rules for paper letters of credit in conjunction with the eUCP. This study comments that some characteristics of the eUCP have unique properties, such as juncture, envelope, homotheticity functions, and some applicable interpretations including abstraction of letter of credit, notice of completeness, notice of discrepancies and corruption of electronic records.

In the Spring of 2000, the Banking Commission of the ICC decided to appoint a working group to draft a supplement to the UCP 500 to clarify the position regarding electronic presentation under a documentary credit. Provisions was drafted to supplement its existing rules for documentary credit, that is, UCP 500. These new provisions known as Supplement to UCP 500 for Electronic Presentation was approved by the ICC Banking Commission at the beginning of November 2001 and came in force as of 1 April 2002 The eUCP covers matters such as definitions of key terms such as electronic record, electronic signature, format, paper document, received. An eUCP Credit must specify the formats in which electronic records are to be presented and if not, electronic records may be presented in any format. Electronic records may be presented separately and need not be presented at the same time. The purpose of this paper is to understand the main substance of eUCP and to facilitate the introduction of electronic letter of credit by studying the problems and revision of eUCP and new electronic UCP. The main substances of eUCP are electronic address as place for presentation of electronic records, flexibility of the formats of electronic records to be presented, endowment of the notice of completeness of presentation to the beneficiary, one electronic record satisfying one or more originals or copies of an electronic record, the electronic records to be examined including the electronic record at the hyperlink to an external system or the referenced system, no remark as to the time period for the examination of documents. The Roles of eUCP are the Promotion of the Electronic Trade, the Supply of Basis on the Uniform Rules for Electronic Letter of Credit, the introduction of Electronic Trade Model. The characteristics of eUCP are a supplement to the UCP, no address of any issues relating to the issuance or advice of Credit electronically, independence of specific technologies and developing electronic commerce system, that is, Bolero Service. The Problems of eUCP are flexibility of format of electronic record, heavy burden on the side of banks, and the problems regrading the number of presentation, the notice of completeness of presentation, no provision in regard to the time to examine the electronic records, and representation of the electronic records. In the revision of eUCP to resolve the problems, the things to be taken into consideration are as follows; the designation of the format allowing the banks to examine electronically, prohibition of the paper documents, the development of the system receiving the electronic records, the addition of the reception notice on the side of the banks, the setting of the time to examine the electronic records, the construction of the backup system or the dual processing system.

The clauses of bill of lading(B/L) consist of the terms of contract for the carriage of goods by sea because of clauses of B/L by the mutual agreement of contracting parties. There are some exempted cause of deviation clause in B/L for specific reasons. Then deviation clauses are influenced by Rules of international carriage of goods by sea, because the international rules become the governing law of contract for the carriage of goods by sea. The problem of deviation clauses in B/L is stipulated as follows. "It shall be prerequisite to the Merchant' claim for damages on account of deviation that the merchant's insurance shall first have been cancelled on account of alleged deviation. No deviation shall oust the right to limit liability or damages, and the Carrier shall always be entitled to the full benefit of all privileges, rights and immunities contained in this Bill of Lading and incorporated tariffs." This stipulation should be adjusted according to the confirmed cases, otherwise it will be invalid according to the Hague Rules and Hamburg rules. The sphere of a reasonable deviation in the deviation clause should be interpreted in the connection with the designed voyage and the commercial object of contract for the carriage of goods by sea and the deviation become valid unless the policy, the general object of international rules or the true intention of contracting parties has violated.

International joint ventures are usually formed and managed by domestic companies and foreign investors for the common objectives. They offer an opportunity for each partner to benefit significantly from the comparative advantages of the other. Local partners bring knowledge of the domestic market; familiarity with government bureaucracies and regulations; understanding of local labor markets; and existing manufacturing facilities. Foreign partners can offer advanced process and product technologies, management know-how, and access to export markets. In Korea, joint ventures have been encouraged to usher in foreign investors with foreign currency capital badly needed during the IMF financial crisis. In the meantime, Korean laws and regulations with respect to joint ventures have been largely overhauled to promote foreign direct investment (FDI) both inbound and outbound. They include four types of FDI, i.e., acquisition of foreign stocks, provision of long-term loans, participation in joint operations like resources development, and establishment of foreign offices. From the legal point of view, the formal joint venture agreement must be an offspring of a series of tough negotiations between domestic and foreign partners. They usually stress the long-term relationship with the good will and dedication to each other, and restrict the free transfer of stocks. Both partners are earnestly interested in the ownership and management of the joint venture. So they keep a close eye on the articles of incorporation, changes of business environment, conflict resolution methods, transparency of accounting and other financial matters. When a multinational corporation (MNC) is involved in the joint venture, conflicts over management strategies, marketing and other issues take place more often than not between the MNC and local partners. We have to pay attention to joint ventures, particularly, in China and North Korea. As witnessed in other transition economies, China is eagerly bringing in foreign direct investments for the development of nation's economy. China encourages foreign investors to establish ordinary joint ventures, contractual joint ventures, solely invested foreign capital companies and jointly operated development companies with local partners. In North Korea, however, joint ventures have a different meaning like contractual joint ventures in China, in which North Korean partners have an initiative in the management. Rather, jointly operated companies or simply processing-for-wage companies are recommended in view of the unpredictable legal infrastructure in North Korea.

The EPC/Turnkey Contract goes to the extreme in allocating risks to the contractor and depending on the types of project, this may be regarded as unacceptable. It has also gone to the extreme in the extent to which the contractor is responsible for the specification and design of the Works. The employer is not responsible for correctness of any information provided by him nor for correctness of any specification or other matter included in the Employer's Requirements, except the definition of the intended purpose and criteria for testing and performance. With such conditions it is surprising that the employer is entitled to interfere in the contractors performance to an extent that is close to what is norm for a construction contract with employer design and with normal risk allocation. The combination of risk allocation and inappropriate administrative provisions makes the EPC/Turnkey Contract a document that will meet severe resistance from contractors. It is also likely that employers will see the risks and difficulties from their own perspective. It is a fiction that the EPC/Turnkey Contract will give the employer a contact with a certainty of final price and completion date. It is not a fiction that the EPC/Turnkey Contract carries many seeds for disputes between the parties. The Orange Book has become an accepted document even if it clearly contains some weaknesses. Some of these have been corrected in the Plant Contract. In my opinion FIDIC should let users become more familiar with the Plant Contract as a follow up to the Orange Book.