Ce sujet concerne la protection du consommateur dans le cadre du commerce électronique. L'objectif de la thèse est de faire une analyse des règles édictées en vue d'adapter les contrats électroniques aux exigences strictes posées par le droit de la consommation. Des règles spéciales sont en effet nécessaires afin de régir un monde virtuel, dématérialisé, où la marchandise est numérique. Ces règles doivent souvent être mêlées aux normes du droit international privé et au droit général de la consommation. Il est important de s'interroger sur la coordination entre les règles classiques de conflits de lois et celles des juridictions au e-commerce? Le droit international privé est-il prêt à faire face au monde immatériel, lui qui s'appuie sur la localisation des actes et faits juridiques ? La problématique réside dans le fait que: les contrats passés en ligne sont avant tout des contrats soumis au droit commun. Mais, en même temps, il serait réducteur de voir le contrat électronique comme un simple contrat. Celui-ci comporte en effet plusieurs aspects qui justifient l'élaboration d'un cadre adapté. Partant de ce constat, il semble que les règles de droit commun sont insuffisantes et que des normes spéciales doivent être mises en place. Ainsi, il importe d'étudier les mesures prises par les législateurs européen, français et égyptien, précisément, dans le but de résoudre les difficultés identifiées au fur et à mesure du renouvellement et du développement des techniques. En effet, on constate, l'émergence d'un droit propre au commerce électronique qui traite de ses différents aspects et notamment de la protection des parties vulnérables tel que les cyber-consommateurs. On assiste aujourd'hui à une période d'effervescence législative: une dizaine de directives sur le commerce électronique, les contrats à distance, les services financiers… ont été adoptés dans le cadre communautaire et à peu près le même nombre de lois a été promulguées au niveau interne pour assurer leurs transpositions et plus largement les stratégies d'améliorations des systèmes juridiques, de mises à jour des législations économiques, de renforcement des protections mises en œuvre par les gouvernements qui aspirent ou adhèrent aux mutations de l'économie internationale et enfin l'adaptabilité des droits internationaux à la résolution des litiges en matière de commerce électronique. Comme traitée dans la Deuxième Partie de cette thèse, pour permettre des transactions fiables, de grande qualité en ligne concernant les pays arabes et les pays en voie de développement, il faut des systèmes de télécommunications modernes offrant des services à large bande et des services mobiles à des prix abordables pour les entreprises et les particuliers. Il faut qu'il existe aussi un milieu favorable avec une concurrence forte entre les fournisseurs de télécommunications. En effet, il faut une véritable volonté ! Ces éléments sont primordiaux pour continuer au développement du commerce électronique tout en appliquant les règles relatives à la protection du consommateur. Et aussi, elles sont indispensables pour produire des applications utiles, de grande qualité. Dans ce domaine aussi, les pouvoirs publics peuvent jouer un rôle vital en veillant à ce que les écoles secondaires et professionnelles enseignent comme connaissances spécialisées nécessaires pour aider à l'avènement d'une véritable économie numérique durable, capable de s'adapter aux besoins des utilisateurs. / This subject concerns the protection of the consumer in the context of electronic commerce. The objective of the thesis is to make an analysis of the rules laid down to adapt electronic contracts to the strict requirements of consumer law. Indeed, special rules are required to govern a world virtual, cloud, where the commodity is digital. These rules must often be mixed standards of private international law and the general law of consumption. It is important to investigate coordination between the classical rules of conflict of laws and the courts to e-commerce? Private international law is ready to face the world intangible, which relies on the location of the acts and made legal? The problem lies in the fact that: the contracts online are primarily subject to common law contracts. But, at the same time, it would be simplistic to see the electronic contract as a contract. In fact, it has several aspects that justify the development of a suitable framework. From this observation, it seems that the rules of common law are insufficient and that special standards must be put in place. Thus, it is important to consider the measures taken by European, french and Egyptian lawmakers specifically, to address the difficulties identified as the renewal and the development of techniques. Indeed, there is the emergence of a law specific to electronic commerce which deals with its different aspects and, in particular, the protection of the vulnerable parties such as cyber-consumers. We are today witnessing a period of legislative ferment: a dozen of directives on electronic commerce, distance contracts, financial services... have been adopted in the community context and roughly the same number of laws promulgated at the domestic level to ensure their transpositions and broader strategies of legal systems enhancements, updates of the economic lawsbuilding the protections implemented by Governments that want or adhere to changes in the international economy and finally the adaptability of the international rights to the resolution of disputes in e-commerce. As discussed in the second part of this thesis, to enable reliable transactions, high-quality online regarding Arab countries and developing countries, must be modern telecommunications systems providing broadband and mobile services at affordable prices for businesses and individuals. It is necessary that there is also a supportive environment with strong competition among telecommunications providers. Indeed, it takes a real desire! These elements are crucial to continue the development of e-commerce while applying the rules relating to the protection of the consumer. And also, they are essential to produce useful applications, of high quality. In this area too, Governments can play a vital role in ensuring that secondary and professional schools teach as necessary expertise to assist in the emergence of a real digital economy sustainable, adaptable to the needs of users.

L'engagement est au cœur du lien social, aussi les juristes lui ont accordé une place considérable au sein de la sphère du droit ; le droit des contrats est le premier concerné. A côté de cela, il n'est plus possible d'ignorer le phénomène du désengagement. La place croissante de ce dernier a conduit la doctrine à se pencher sur lui, à s'intéresser aux règles qui prévoient en matière de droit des contrats une faculté de repentir. Compte tenu de cela, il nous paraît particulièrement intéressant de traiter de l' « engagement », en le confrontant avec son symétrique, le « désengagement ». Cela pourrait, croyons-nous, changer la façon dont l'un et l'autre peuvent être appréhendés. Et nous avons choisi de concentrer nos efforts sur les dispositifs issus du droit de la consommation, qui à nos yeux sont l'expression la plus forte de l'idée de désengagement contractuel. / On one hand, the commitment is at the heart of the social link, therefore the civil lawyers granted it a crucial place within the sphere of the law. It is particularly true for contract law. On the other hand, it is not possible any more to ignore the phenomenon of the right of withdrawal. The increasing place of the latter, led the doctrine to deal with it, to be interested in the rules, which plan regarding contract law a faculty to regret. Considering it, it seems to us particularly interesting to deal with the "commitment", by confronting it with its contrary, the "right of withdrawal". It could, we believe, change the way both can be apprehended. Therefore, we focus on the consumer law, which is, for us, the highest expression of the right of withdrawal.

The Supreme Court of the United States consented in its Empagran decision that the foreign antitrust injury that is in a dependency relationship with anticompetitive effects (antitrust injury) in the U.S. is to be litigated before the U.S. courts. Since this decision antitrust law litigation in an international context does not depend merely on anticompetitive effects in the U.S., but also on the relationship between anticompetitive effect and (foreign) private antitrust injury. This is something that was not present in pre-Empagran cases. The Supreme Court did not provide conditions on the basis of which the relationship between anticompetitive effects and private antitrust injury could be classified as one of dependency. This means that the Supreme Court left the determination of these conditions to lower U.S. courts. The lower U.S. courts, instead of attempting to determine these conditions, have made foreign private antitrust injury even more difficult to litigate before the U.S. courts. There are three factors that contributed to this development in U.S. case law: the understanding of the Empagran litigation; the understanding of the nature of the international context, and U.S. courts taking a pro-active role in delivering their decisions for which the reasoning is difficult to understand. The greatest obstacle that post-Empagran U.S. courts have placed in front of private antitrust litigants is the requirement that instead of ‘dependency connection’ there should be ‘direct causation’ between anticompetitive effects in the U.S. and litigated (foreign) private antitrust injury. This thesis considers the existing theoretical and practical problems of the current analytical framework under which antitrust violation is analysed in an international context. The thesis introduces the new legal concept of a ‘transborder standard’. This is necessitated by the starting position of this thesis that a factual situation under adjudication cannot be only either ‘domestic’ or ‘foreign’, but can also be ‘transborder’. The introduction of the transborder standard to the existing theoretical framework enables (and requires) the analysis of the factual situation under adjudication in its integrity, bearing in mind also the purpose of private antitrust law enforcement and the right of private parties to be compensated for suffered antitrust injury. The transborder standard provides a framework to analyse antitrust claims brought before the U.S. courts by those private parties who satisfy their private antitrust injury outside the U.S. At the same time, the transborder standard does not enable private litigants to take advantage of simultaneous antitrust litigation before U.S. courts and the courts of non-U.S. countries. ‘Transborder standard’ is a new legal concept. Nevertheless, the existing system of U.S. antitrust law enforcement does support it and, consequently, the transborder standard can be directly applied.

Offshore petroleum exploration and production (E&P) activities are faced with both technical and environmental challenges. In spite of these challenges, offshore petroleum E&P are on the increase globally. These operations have not been accident free even with improved technology. Recent incidents like Montara blowout and Deepwater Horizon fire have more than ever before raised serious concerns about the safety of offshore oil and gas E&P. Key issues are the prevention of major hazards, emergency response and civil liability, and payment of compensation. These issues have greater implication when the impact is transboundary. There is a general consensus on the need to ensure safety of these operations globally. However, the international legal framework needed to achieve the objective is unresolved. Looking at the extant international instruments relating to marine pollution from offshore oil and gas activities, there is a clear absence of global treaty on safety of offshore operations, civil liability and compensation. While there is general consensus on the need for safety of offshore oil and gas operations globally, opinions are divided on the necessity for global treaties. This thesis looks at the extant international legal framework at both global and regional levels with a view to identifying gaps in provisions on safety, civil liability and compensation. The thesis finds that even in the post-Macondo era, there are no global treaties in relation to safety of offshore petroleum E&P to prevent accidental pollution, and to deal with issues of civil liability and compensation. Furthermore, most regional regimes have no specific provisions on accidental pollution from offshore operations and liability issues arising therefrom. The absence of provisions for civil liability, especially in cases of transboundary harm from offshore accidental pollution has created difficulty for affected nations and nationals. This thesis proffers suggestion for international regulation of offshore petroleum operations to prevent accidental pollution, improve emergency response and guarantee prompt settlement of liabilities and payment of compensation. Accordingly, an international legal framework involving three levels of legal regimes is recommended as an effective way of preventing accidental pollution from offshore petroleum operations to protect marine environment and also ensuring that liabilities that may arise in the event of a major hazard are adequately addressed.

L'objectif de ce travail est d'étudier l'impact du phénomène de mise en bouteille sur l'accès à l'eau. En effet, l’eau en bouteille influence non seulement la façon dont les gens boivent, mais elle affecte aussi leur possibilité d’accéder à la ressource, économiquement ou physiquement. L'objectif du projet est dès lors de comprendre quel rôle joue le droit dans la production de ce phénomène et dans la distribution de l'eau. En effet, la réglementation de la mise en bouteille se caractérise par une tension dans la conceptualisation juridique de l'eau en tant que ressource vitale ou comme marchandise. Ce travail repose sur une analyse comparative des régimes juridiques régissant l’eau en bouteille en Europe. Les recherches portent principalement sur la comparaison des régimes français, britannique et italien. Ce travail a pour but de montrer comment l’embouteillage produit, même dans ce contexte, de la rareté et / ou une inégalité dans l’accès à l’eau. L'enjeu de l'accès à l'eau et de sa distribution en bouteille est déterminé par la structure de la propriété, une institution construite autour de la terre, pour régir l'exploitation de l'eau. En effet, la plupart des systèmes juridiques européens, malgré leurs différences, ont élaboré un régime de réglementation de l’eau fondé sur le paradigme de la propriété. C’est le recours à ce paradigme qui entraîne la tension qualificative entre bien économique et ressource vitale. Cette tension est susceptible de permettre au phénomène d'embouteillage de réallouer de facto les prérogatives sur l'eau, malgré le régime juridique formel. / The purpose of this work is to investigate the impact of the bottling phenomenon on access to water. In fact, bottled water not only influences the way people drink, but it also affects their possibility of access the resource, either economically or physically. The aim of the project is then to understand what role law plays in the production of this phenomenon and in water distribution. Indeed, bottling regulation is characterized by a tension in legal conceptualisation of water as an essential resource or as a commodity. This work relies on a comparative analysis of the legal regimes governing bottled water in Europe. In particular, the research focuses on the comparison of the French, the British, and the Italian regimes. This work intends to point out how bottling produces scarcity and/or inequality in access to water even in this context. The challenge to water access and distribution constituted by bottled water is determined by the structure of property, an institution constructed around land, to govern water exploitation. Indeed, most of European legal systems, despite their differences, constructed a water regulatory regime that is based on the paradigm of property. The reliance on this paradigm brought about the qualificatory tension mentioned above. This tension is susceptible of enabling the bottling phenomenon to produce a de facto reallocation of water prerogatives despite the formal legal regime.

The class action is an important instrument for the enforcement of consumers' rights, particularly in personal actions for low sums known as Negative Expected Value (NEV) suits. Collective redress actions transform NEV suits into Positive Expected Value suits using economies of scale by the aggregation of smaller actions into a single legal action which is economically worthwhile pursuing. Collective redress promotes adherence to the law, deters illegal actions and furthers public interests. Collective redress also helps in the management of multiple cases in court. The introduction of a new class action model in Israel has proven to be very workable in the sense that it has improved access to justice, albeit that this system currently suffers from over-use, referred to in this work as the "flood problem". The purpose of this research is to introduce a class action model which brings with it the advantages of the Israeli model, as well as improvements upon it so as to promote consumer confidence in low figure transactions by individuals with large, powerful companies. The new model suggested in this work relies on the opt-out mechanism, monitored by regulatory bodies through public regulation or by private regulators. The reliance on the supremacy of public enforcement and follow-on actions over private stand-alone actions should make the system of collective redress more efficient than the current Israeli model, reducing the risk of a flood of actions whilst at the same time improving access to justice for large groups of claimants. Thus far, no unified European class action mechanism has been developed, and only some member states have developed their own systems. The model discussed in this work may be implemented as a unified set of rules in Europe, with some additional adjustments, such as those covering cross-border trade, to promote confidence in trade within the European Union.

The proposition of the thesis is, in its role as the lead offshore petroleum regulator in Ghana, the Petroleum Commission is not competent enough to oversee robust offshore health and safety regulation. Two accounts are developed to support this claim. First, the conferment of dual licensing and health and safety regulatory functions on the Petroleum Commission gives rise to a potential conflict. Secondly, even recognising a distinction between formal and de facto independence, neither is present in the Petroleum Commission. A number of factors justify these assertions: not least the fact that the law establishing the Petroleum Commission confers discretionary powers on the executive and does not provide regulatory independence as a formal requirement. In addition, the Commission's financial and administrative procedures are determinable by influences external to it. Formal independence is not, however, in itself a sufficient condition for the proper exercise of regulatory discretion. It is necessary for the regulatory body in question to be able in fact to behave independently, that is, to develop and take ownership of regulatory values, which in turn depend on the possession of relevant competence and expertise. Based on comparative analysis of global offshore regulatory regimes, and backed by empirical evidence, the thesis recommends legislative reforms in Ghana aimed at a functional separation of petroleum licensing from health and safety regulation.

Chapter 1 introduces the topic of third party funding of litigation which is a recent phenomenon in academic circles. Few of the existing papers on commercial litigation funding are empirically based and those that are, with one exception, use surveys and interviews to collect data. Within the legal boundaries of litigation funding, economic theory predicts that in perfectly competitive markets consumers control what is supplied, prices cover costs without excessive profits and inefficient producers are eliminated. However reality rarely conforms to prediction, and regulation may be appropriate in the public interest to overcome market failures arising from information asymmetries. The research focus is: ‘How effectively are commercial third party litigation funders governed and/or regulated?’ Chapter 2 proceeds to consider the literature on regulation, it’s applicability to litigation funding and the interests of stakeholders. A major concern is the ability of a litigation funder to pay the costs of a winning defendant. The conclusion reached in Chapter 3 is that litigation funders have too much choice in the way they report and disclose information and what they actually report and disclose is deficient in meeting the needs of investors. In Chapter 4, using single firm event study methodology I discover that the stock exchange market does not always react as predicted to disclosure by litigation funders and consequently the market is not an adequate proxy for a regulator. Chapter 5 extends chapter 3 on the solvency issue and also considers other stakeholder issues e.g. ethical ones which may require regulation. The conclusion reached is that a light touch independent regulator overseen by the legal services board would be appropriate. This work narrows the literature gap for empirically based economic research and augments and extends the existing literature by examining third party funding of heterogeneous high value, low volume cases in contrast to homogenous, low value, high volume cases. It is the first work on the accounting regulation of litigation funding. This work will also assist investors, the judiciary and other stakeholders to better evaluate the risks of this new industry.

Chapter one focuses on optimal pricing in markets of consumption chains. These are markets in which one good is necessary for access to further consumption goods. I analyse optimal pricing for different market structures, focusing on the case of an integrated monopolist and the case of separate firms being in competition across markets, but not within markets. I then compare the outcomes of different market structures using basic welfare measures. I show that, compared to the first best allocation, the allocation implemented under the integrated monopolist tends to have significantly lower consumer surplus and larger producer surplus. Aggregate welfare is surprisingly not much smaller under the integrated firm when compared to a welfare maximising allocation. In some settings the integrated monopolist even implements a welfare maximising allocation. The paper explains and highlights how these results depend largely on which assumptions are made about the information available to consumers. The second chapter contributes towards the existing literatures on lobbying and on media bias by combining and extending features of both. It aims to analyse optimal slanting policies of interest or media groups and their effect on the distribution of public opinion and its evolution over time by introducing an intertemporal model of grassroots lobbying or media bias. I also allow for more general results than existing models by making fewer distributive assumptions and by allowing for further incentives of agents. In the chapter I combine demand and supply side models for bias. A main focus lies on how optimal slanting, the distribution of public opinion and its evolution over time depend on competition. The chapter aims to examine in which circumstances competition in the media market or the existence of multiple rival lobby groups can be detrimental. It shows how this can be the case because competition can create an incentive to split the public up and cater only to the own market. This can lead to a loss of the middle ground and increased dispersion of public opinion. The third chapter aims to extend the existing literature on the (in)efficiencies of voluntary contribution mechanisms for public goods. The existing body of research tries to analyse how group size affects the outcomes of such mechanisms asymptotically, while I also focus on results for given group sizes and the effect of the level of group heterogeneity in combination with group size. Agents are ex post heterogeneous in the existing literature; I also allow for them to be heterogeneous ex ante. This means that agents do not only have different valuations for the public good ex post, but different agents are also perceived differently by other agents ex ante. I show that a form of price discrimination can be used when agents are ex ante heterogeneous. Not using such price discrimination is shown to be costly in terms of efficiency in small groups. Small heterogeneous groups are outperformed by their homogeneous counterparts when price discrimination is not applied. However, this inefficiency in small groups can be eliminated by using price discrimination. The use of price discrimination becomes irrelevant in large groups and heterogeneous groups always outperform their homogeneous counterparts, whether price discrimination is used or not.

La notion de droits et d'intérêts économiques protégeables délocalisés sur le plan international a un lien évident avec les mouvements internationaux de capitaux. Et on ne peut parler de ces mouvements sans évoquer le contentieux juridique qui les concerne sur le plan international. Car ces mouvements relèvent des transferts des capitaux privés et peuvent faire l'objet de mesures contraintes dans les pays d'accueil. Mais notre sujet est abordé dans le cadre du contentieux porté devant la CIJ qui a rendu à cet effet deux arrêts importants, à savoir l'arrêt Barcelona Traction en 1970 et l'arrêt Elettronica Sicula en 1989, auxquels on peut ajouter un arrêt récent, longtemps attendu, mais décevant, l'arrêt Diallo rendu le 24 mai 2007. L'objectif général de cette étude est de contribuer à la réflexion sur cette notion qui s'inscrit dans le cadre du contentieux économique international d'origine privé et intéresse les personnes privées qui délocalisent leurs activités sur le plan international. Il s'agit des actionnaires personnes physiques ou morales qui émettent des investissements à long terme à l'étranger. Ceux-ci sont qualifiés d'investissements directs consistant dans l'apport de capitaux d'une entreprise à une autre, par la création d'une filiale à l'étranger, ou l'augmentation du capital de celle-ci, le rachat d'une entreprise étrangère, la prise de participation, la constitution d'une société étrangère en compagnie d'actionnaires étrangers majoritaires. En effet, pour les pays d'accueil, ces investissements constituent un facteur de développement. Car ils sont un procédé de canalisation de transfert de technologie. Les investisseurs étrangers apportent avec eux des techniques de production innovantes, des méthodes d'organisation performantes et des savoir-faire qui se propageront progressivement à l'ensemble du pays et doperont sa productivité. En conséquence ces pays auront importé un progrès technique sans avoir eu à le financer. Dans ces conditions les actionnaires, qui ne sont autres que des investisseurs directs, attendent que leur soient assurées, sur le plan international, la sécurité et la liberté de leurs activités économiques. En outre, en cas de différend concernant le traitement de leurs droits et intérêts économiques par l'Etat où ils sont établis, ces acteurs économiques comptent sur la protection diplomatique et judiciaire que la CIJ peut décider à leur égard. A cet effet, il conviendra d'examiner dans cette étude, si la CIJ qui est une juridiction universelle, est le cadre judiciaire approprié pour régler le contentieux qui résulte des réalités économiques internationales. Car nous montrerons que l'inquiétude pour les investisseurs étrangers porte d'une part, sur l'identification des droits et des intérêts économiques protégeables dans la jurisprudence de la CIJ d'une part, et sur la détermination de la qualité de l'Etat pour devant la Cour d'autre part. / The notion of rights and economic interests protectable relocated internationally has clear links with international capital movements. And one cannot speak of these movements without mentioning the legal dispute which concerns internationally.Because these movements fall transfers of private capital and are subject to measures stress in the host country. But our subject is addressed in the context of proceedings brought before the ICJ that made this two important cases, namely the Barcelona traction judgment in 1970 and ElettronicaSicula judgment in 1989, which may be added a recent judgment long-awaited but disappointing, the Diallo judgment in 24 th May, 2007.The general aims of this study is to contribute to the reflection on the theme that fits in the context of international economic disputes of private origin and interested individuals who relocated their international activities. These shareholders persons or entities that issue long-term investments abroad. These are referred to as direct investment consisting in the provision of capital from one company to another, though the establishment of a foreign subsidiary, or increasing the capital thereof, the redemption a foreign company, the equity investment, the establishment of a foreign company with majority foreign shareholders company. Indeed, for the host countries, these investments are a factor of development. Because they are a method of transfer line technology. Foreign investors bring whith them innovative production techniques. Efficient organization methods and know – how which gradually spread to the entire country and will boost productivity. Consequently, these countries have imported technical progress without having to pay for it. Under these conditions the shareholders, which are other than direct investors are waiting for their insured internationally, security and freedom of economic activities. In addition, in the event of a dispute regarding the processing of their rights and economic interests of States where they are established, these economic actors rely on diplomatic and legal protection that the ICJ may decide against them. Finally, our research should be examined in this study, if the ICJ is a universal jurisdiction is the appropriate legal framework for resolving disputes resulting from international economic realities. Because we show that the concern for foreign investors’ concerns, first, the identification of protectable rights and economic interest in the jurisprudence of the ICJ on the hand, and the determination of the quality of state to the Court on the other.