• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.63-74
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• 2012

The Korean Conflict of Laws Act recently incorporated much of the European Union's recent revision in "EC Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations (Rome 1980)"(hereinafter Rome Convention). With the revision of Rome Convention applied to contractual obligations,"Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I)"(hereinafter Rome I) has taken effect on December 2009. Before the effectivation of Rome I, "Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (Rome II)"(hereinafter Rome II) has come into effect on January 2009. This means the revision of certain rules and its practical implications need an in-depth study on governing law rules under Rome I which provides newly effected governing laws applicable to contractual obligations. Moreover, uniform choice of law rules on non-contractual obligations needs to focus especially on marine insurance contract. Where policy assignment and subrogation causes, how to decide the governing law which will be applied to the insurer as a third party? This article attempts to analyze emerging legal issues in legal regimes determining choice of law, especially those in international marine insurance contracts. This will help Korean practitioners to be dialed in legal affairs under English Law as the governing law in their contracts.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.46
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• pp.181-210
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• 2010

The continuing advance of multimodal transport with the importance for efficient and effective logistics management emphasizes the need for uniform legal approach to international multimodal transport. However, the current fragmented instrument regulating such transport is being an obstacle to development of multimodal transport as it aggravates confusion and uncertainty. The Rotterdam rules, which was adopted in December 2008 by UNCITRAL, expands its scope of application to door-to-door transport. However, the new rules has some problems in its application to multimodal transport operation as it has been conceived not to regulate general multimodal carriage but to regulate contract of carriage by sea that extends its services to the transport by other modes. This article examines conflict of conventions in the Rotterdam Rules. The applicability of the Rotterdam Rules in international multimodal transport contract and possibility of potential conflict with other transport conventions are analyzed with some hypothetical cases. Furthermore, problems arising from application of the Rotterdam Rules under international multimodal transport Contracts are indicated in the chapter IV.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.20
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• pp.129-150
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• 2003

Software license agreements, to be useful in the mass market, could not be individually negotiated, and had to be standardized and concise. The software license agreement needs to be presented to the licensee-users in a fashion that would allow for mass distribution of software, also for it to enforceable, that would draw the users' attention to the terms and conditions under which the publisher allowed the use of the software. These needs have been accomplished, with or without fail, through so called the "shrink-wrap licenses" Shrink-wrap licenses purpose to transfer computer softwares to their users by defining the terms and conditions of use of the software without implicating the "first sale doctrine" of the Copyright Act. These shrink-wrap licenses have become essential to the software industry. However, in USA, the law applicable to these licenses has been unclear and unsettled. Courts have struggled to develop a coherent framework governing their enforceability. Meanwhile, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws ("NCCUSL") in USA promulgated the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act ("UCITA") governing contracts for computer information transaction on July 29, 1999. One clear objective of UCITA was to settle the law governing the enforceability of shrink-wrap licenses. In these respects, this paper first introduces the various forms that shrink-wrap licenses take(at Part II. Section 1.), and explains the main advantages of them(at Part II. Section 2.) Here it shows how shrink-wrap licenses value themselves for both software publishers and users, including that shrink-wrap licenses are a valuable contracting tool because they provide vital information and rights to software users and because they permit the contracting flexibility that is essential for today's software products. Next, this paper describes the current legal framework applicable to shrink-wrap licenses in USA(at Part III). Here it shows that in USA the development of case law governing shrink-wrap licenses occurred in two distinct stages. At first stage, judicial hostility toward shrink-wrap licenses marked such that they were not enforced pursuant to Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. At second stage, courts began to recognize the pervasiveness of shrink-wrap licenses, their indispensability to the rapidly expanding information technology industry, and the urgent need to enforce such licenses in order to maintain low prices for consumers of computer hardware or software, resulting in the recognition of shrink-wrap licenses. Finally, in view of the importance of UCITA, this paper examines how it will affect the enforceability of shrink-wrap licenses(at Part IV). The drafters of UCITA, as well as the scholars and practitioners who have criticized it, agree that it validates shrink-wrap licenses, provided certain procedural protections are afforded to purchasers. These procedural protections include the licensee end-user must (i) manifest his assent to the shrink-wrap license, (ii) have an opportunity to review the shrink-wrap license, (iii) have a right to return the product without costs.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.49
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• pp.139-164
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• 2011

Traditionally courts have been adopted over the years two standards of dealing with compliance of documents such as strict compliance and substantial compliance and the substantial compliance, which was somewhat less demanding than the strict compliance. However the new guidelines of ICC's international standard banking practice for the examination of documents under documentary credits set up how the UCP is to be applied in practice. The payment obligations of an issuing bank to a beneficiary are independence of the performance or the nonperformance of any contract underlying the letter of credit. However, strictly applying the principle of independence and abstraction could produce unfair results by operating unjustly enrich an unscrupulous beneficiary in case of fraud. Accordingly, when a beneficiary presents complying documents, the issuing bank is bound to honour the presentation unless the fraud rule applies on the facts of the case such as forged or material fraud. If it does, the issuing bank(issuer) needs not pay despite the complying presentation of documents by the beneficiary under the Uniform Commercial Code Article 5-109 and case law in America. However the fraud rule was not addressed in UCP 600. In conclusion, view in terms of legal principle and the court cases is variable and difficult to honour or dishonour the presentation in case of application of the independence principle and fraud rule such as the problems on burden of proof timely, possibility of granting injunction in order to protect against victim for bona fide applicant.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.77
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• pp.145-168
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• 2018

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the limitation of liabilities of multimodal transport operators(MTO) in Korea. Also, this paper reviews the revised draft of Korean Commercial Code in 2015. This paper analyzes Korean multimodal transport systemand the limitation of liabilities of MTO by analyzing articles, regulations and practices of Korean Commercial Code and it's the draft in 2015. The paper, also, studies multimodal transport rules by comparing specifically international treaty, rules, or practices. In Korea, Article 816 of Commercial Code treats multimodal transportation adopting the network liability regime. The Article describes only the case of the multimodal transportation where the maritime carriage is engaged. Korea proposed the draft of multimodal transport regulation of Commercial Code in 2015 because present law could not apply for the multimodal transportation involved in the air or land carriage. This paper support the draft of Korean Commercial Code in 2015 because it is necessary to make a predictable legal system of multimodal transport and the limitation of liability reflecting practices or customs.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.45-66
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• 2009

Licensing of information is the standard of the computer information business today. The huge bulk of vendors license their computer information products. The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act(UCITA), therefore, does not originate licensing contracts. UCITA was developed to provide basic, recognizable default rules for the existing licensing activity that goes on and expands as commerce in computer information expands. UCITA's rules govern licensing of contracts for computer information from formation through performance, including remedies if there is a breach of contract. Included in UCITA are rules for warranties, both implied and express, and rules pertaining to risk of loss in a computer information transaction. Most of the rules in UCITA are the traditional and familiar rules of contract from the law of sales and from the common law, but adapted to the special nature of computer information licensing contracts. Freedom of contract is a dominating underlying policy for UCITA, exactly as that principle is the foundation for the law of commercial transactions, generally, and exactly as that law has served all commercial transactions in the United States and has contributed to the economic growth and health of the United States.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.31
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• pp.3-25
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• 2006

This study focus on interest for arrears and filling of the gaps left in Article 78 of CISG. In the case of CISG, Article 78 provides for interest any time a payment under a contract is untimely, but does not specify a particular rate of interest or a method to determine such a rate. This issue did not cause any uncertainty under ULIS, the CISG's antecedent, since Article 83 of ULIS provided for 1%p above the official discount rate in the creditor's country. Lacking any CISG general principle as well as any indication by the very same CISG, one can only conclude that the matter must be deferred to the domestic rule of private international law. Actually, resorting to private international law is not only admissible, but expressly required by Article 7(2). In the interpretation and filling of the gaps left in Article 78, there is a considerable difference of opinion especially amongst commentators on whether the gap is a lacuna praeter legem, i.e., one being governed by, but not expressly settled in the CISG, or whether it is an issue falling outside the scope of application of the CISG, i.e. a lacuna intra legem. The protagonists of the former view lay emphasis on the overall objective of the CISG, namely to create a uniform law, whereas the supporters of the latter view refer to the legislative history of Article 78 as the dominant principle in interpreting Article 78. Some authors believe that the issue of determining the rate of interest is not dealt with by CISG and it is, therefore, governed by the applicable domestic law, which is the subsidiary law applicable to the sales contract, since "no special connecting points seem to have developed for the entitlement to interest." In the light of the relevant case law, it seems correct to conclude that the interest rate is not determined by CISG and that courts normally determine it according to their own rules of private international law. While CISG Article 78 expressly does not deal with this issue, PICC Article 7.4.9 and PECL Article 9.508, on the other hand, set forth a precise method for computing interest. Although a method like the one set by PICC may be useful and may encourage uniformity, it still cannot be used under the CISG. The PICC or PECL formula may, however, be a very good starting point in a de jure condendum analysis when a new Article 78 will be drafted, if an interest rate method will ever be embodied in the text of an international convention.

• The Journal of Information Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.135-148
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• 2005

The purpose of this article is to study on the Comparison of the Basic Law on Electronic Commerce and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act(UETA). The purpose of th Basic Law on Electronic Commerce is to contribute to the national economy by clarifying the legal effect of transactions by means of electronic messages so as to ensure the security and reliability thereof and to secure fair trade, and further by establishing sound and orderly transactions, and promoting electronic commerce. It is important to understand that the purpose of the UETA is to remove barriers to electronic commerce by validating and effectuating electronic records and signatures. It is not a general contracting-the substantive rules of contracts remain unaffected by UETA. Nor is a digital signature statute. To the extent that a State has a Digital Signature Law, the UETA is designed to support and compliment that statute.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.88-105
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• 2022

Purpose - This paper studies whether economic sanctions can be used as grounds for a party to an international sales contract to get an exemption if he fails to meet his contractual obligation. Because the answer can differ depending on the governing law of the contract, this study focuses on CISG, the most widely recognized international uniform legal instrument as the governing law of the international sale of goods. Design/methodology - This paper focuses on analyzing the conditions to meet before getting an exemption under CISG. For such analysis, this paper examined various scholarly writings, cases, and hypothetical examples reflecting a wide variety of economic sanction measures. Findings - The findings of this paper are as follows. The main provision for exemption under CISG is Article 79(1), which provides for an exemption for a party that failed to perform if such failure was caused by an impediment that was uncontrollable, unforeseeable, and unavoidable; either a seller or a buyer may rely on the Article for his non-performance, delay, or defective performance. The Article is applicable not only where the economic sanction caused impossibility of performance but also where it caused hardship. The economic sanction will likely be found to be an uncontrollable impediment; however, it will be relatively more difficult to prove it to be unforeseeable or unavoidable. Originality/value - The subject of this paper is whether a party can be exempted from liability under CISG when he fails to perform his contractual obligations due to economic sanctions. Given that this issue is now actually faced by many involved in international trade, it is expected to provide practical help to practitioners and companies alike.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.43
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• pp.101-115
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• 2009

More than two years have passed since the latest UCP, Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits, 2007 Revision, ICC Publication No.600 became valid on July 1, 2007. There has been a lot of confusions in connection with the interpretation of the new UCP since July 1, 2007. Especially the transport document articles of the new UCP are the most confusing ones. Therefore, this work intends to study some points for practical attention of transport documents in the UCP 600. Transport documents can be divided into two kinds of documents such as marine transport documents and other transport documents. But most sellers and buyers distinguish two kinds of transport documents : the document of title and the document of non-title. Most traders consider the document of title importantly and ignore the document of non-title.