The principle of territoriality is a truism in intellectual property (IP) law. A premise underlying the principle is the right of each state to determine the extent to which IP rights exist and are protected within its own territory to fulfil its own economic, social and cultural policy goals. This is done by giving a right to prevent others from doing within the protected territory any of the acts that are exclusively reserved to the right holder under the IP statute that granted or protects the IP right. The principle of territoriality informs that IP rights granted or protected by a state are independent from those granted or protected by other states, and that the rights conferred under each state’s IP law are limited to the territory of that state. As the principle of territoriality neatly allocated jurisdiction among states on a territorial basis, it purportedly obviated the need for private international law. Each state exercised jurisdiction over the infringement of its own rights and applied its own domestic IP law, which served the interests of the states and of the parties. With the increase in the protection and exploitation of IP rights across national borders, infringements do not remain within hermetically sealed national territories. Acts taken in one state can have effects in other states and impair the policies that the rights were designed to fulfil. This raises questions concerning the territorial scope of application of the domestic IP law, that is, whether it is interpreted with respect to a domestic tangible act, effects on a domestic policy goal or both. In addition, the transborder exploitation of IP rights raises questions of private international law with respect to whether states exercise jurisdiction and apply national law to disputes concerning infringements of their domestic rights or whether states exercise jurisdiction and apply national law to disputes arising from acts committed in their territories (or both). These determinations may depend on different factors such as the different interests taken into consideration (e.g. state or party interests), the different legal traditions upon which the legal systems are based and the characteristics and functions of the IP rights themselves. This dissertation compares the interpretation and operation of the principle of territoriality of IP law in the private law resolution of transborder IP infringement disputes in the legal systems of the European Union and the United States, two distinctly different legal systems that have significant trade and investment relations with each other. The comparison shows that while the systems are functionally similar, the principle of territoriality is interpreted and operates somewhat differently in the two legal systems.

Water resources located in more than one country are complex systems governed by customary international law embodied in a rule known as equitable and reasonable utilisation, a recent development in international law not yet been applied by an international tribunal to resolve a dispute or to allocate transboundary water resources between countries. Water scarcity on a global scale has reached critical proportions with 1.1 billion people without access to sufficient safe water for personal and domestic use; over half that number depend on transboundary watercourses that will disappear over the next century. Conflicts of use over shared water resource have the potential to escalate into armed conflict; certainty in the peaceful means to avoid and resolve disputes is needed. The thesis examines international procedural practice and jurisprudence applying equitable principles in a case study to illustrate how equitable and reasonable utilisation may be applied by an international tribunal. The survey of international practice will inform States about procedural options for dispute avoidance and resolution in disputes over the use of transboundary water resources.

This paper deals with the phenomenon of the financial collateral arrangements, under which parties transfer book-entry securities. It focuses on the legal questions link to the international element. Financial collateral arrangements typically occur in securities repurchase and securities lending. These transactions play important role in order to guarantee liquidity cash and proper functioning of capital markets in the European Union. Simultaneously, securities are no longer only of a tangible goods nature; instead they exists as electronic records in securities accounts. This is why conflicts of law issues have become so paramount. This study analyses the approach of Czech law to financial collateral arrangements. In particular, if the collateral is represented by a book-entry share, bond or fund unit. It pays attention to such a matter from the national as well as the harmonised EU perspective. On an EU level, such arrangements are primarily regulated by the Collateral Directive (FCAD). The Hague Convection on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in Respect of Securities held with Intermediaries, which has had a profound impact on the notion of book-entry securities conflicts of law rules, is specifically discussed too. Both methods to provide financial collateral, i.e. the outright transfer and...

The legalization of medical marijuana has been a complicated and confusing process. The drug is used for medical purposes yet is only semi-legal and not approved by the federal government. This piece will observe the legal medical history of this drug in the United States. It will analyze the growth of the medical marijuana movement up to the present with a special emphasis to the importance of federal, state and local supremacy. It will observe important court cases that have been decisive in defining the reach of federal power under the Commerce Clause and the 1970 Controlled Substance Act. This analysis will look at the current legal standing of medical marijuana as well as the legal hurdles to achieve full legal status and medical recognition from state federal and local levels of government. A special focus will be given to the state of California because it has the largest medical marijuana market and has taken center stage in the movement to legalize marijuana as a medicine. This paper will also cover the growth of the state condoned medical marijuana black market and the complications that arise from taxing, and licensing semi-legal businesses. This paper will assess the monetary and personal costs of this movement and the political elements of resisting the medical development and scientific understanding of this drug. It will seek to suggest a solution to the current impasse and explain why medical marijuana in this instance has been bad medicine and dangerous policy.

Au 20è siècle, l’Internet a commencé à se développer. En matière de propriété littéraire et artistique, l’incidence des nouvelles technologies sur la création fut réelle et parfois positive. Cependant, les nouvelles technologies causent des conséquences négatives sur la création elle-même. C’est le phénomène du piratage des œuvres sur l’Internet. Les prérogatives d’auteur sont alors menacées, car tous les citoyens peuvent être des consommateurs des œuvres sans difficulté, ni rémunération pour l’auteur. Alors que la législation vietnamienne dans cette matière est encore silencieuse, aucune étude pertinente et approfondie n’existe pour l’instant au Vietnam. Cette thèse vise à apprécier l’efficacité de la protection et de l’exploitation du droit d’auteur dans le cyberespace au Vietnam tant en théorie qu’en pratique.La première partie se consacre à l’étude des enjeux de l’application du droit d’auteur dans le cyberespace. L’analyse porte au premier rang sur les influences de l’Internet sur les droits d’auteur. Il s’agit donc d’étudier les caractères ainsi que les attributs des prérogatives morales et patrimoniales de l’auteur afin d’analyser pourquoi et comment l’Internet peut les influencer. Le développement de ce travail aborde ensuite l’exploitation du droit d’auteur dans cet environnement. La pertinence de l’étude de cette question se trouve dans l’idée selon laquelle sans l’exploitation, les prérogatives de l’auteur sont dépourvues de valeur.La deuxième partie porte sur les mesures de protection du droit d’auteur ainsi que les aspects de droit international privé. À ce titre, deux types de mesures de protection des droit d’auteur sur l’Internet sont envisagés, à savoir d’une part, l’engagement de la responsabilité des acteurs relatifs à l’exploitation des œuvres sur l’Internet, et d’autre part, le renforcement des sanctions civiles, administratives tant que pénales. En outre, pour une meilleure protection du droit d’auteur sur l’Internet, les conflits de juridictions ainsi que les conflits de lois pour des litiges ayant des éléments d’extranéité provoqués par l’espace sans frontière comme Internet doivent être résolus. En effet, est retenu en général pour la détermination du tribunal compétent, un principe selon lequel le tribunal du domicile du défendeur est compétent de juger ainsi que le tribunal du lieu du délit. Quant à la loi applicable, d’après un principe posé par la Convention de Berne, dit lex loci protectionis, l’étendue et les moyens de recours garantis à l’auteur pour sauvegarder ses droits sont réglés exclusivement par la législation du pays où la protection est réclamée. / In the 20th century, the Internet began to develop. In terms of literary and artistic property, the impact of new technologies on the creation was real and sometimes positive. However, new technologies are causing a negative impact on the creation itself. This is a piracy phenomenon on the Internet. The prerogatives of author are so threatened because all persons can become consumers of the works without difficulty, or compensation for the author. While the Vietnamese law in this area is still quiet, the relevant study is currently rare in Vietnam. This thesis aims to assess the effectiveness of the protection and of the exploitation of copyright in cyberspace in Vietnam both in theory and practice.The first part is devoted to study of issues in the application of copyright in cyberspace. In this part, the influences of the Internet on copyright are firstly mentioned. It is therefore to study the characteristics and the attributes of prerogatives of the author to analyze why and how the Internet can influence them. The development of this work addresses the exploitation of copyright in this environment. The relevance of the study of this question lies in the idea that without the operation, the prerogatives of the author have no value.The second part focuses on copyright protection measures and aspects of private international law concerning copyright. As such, two types of measures to protect copyright on the Internet are considered, namely the one hand, the commitment of the responsibility of actors of the Internet for the exploitation of works in cyberspace, and the other hand, the strengthening of civil remedies as well as administrative and criminal penalties. In addition, for better protection of copyright on the Internet, conflicts of jurisdiction and conflicts of law in disputes with foreign elements caused by the border-free area such as the Internet must be resolved. In fact, is usually chosen for the determination of the competent court, a principle that the court of the place of the defendant is competent to judge and the court of the place of the offence. For the applicable law, according to principle laid down by the Berne Convention, said lex loci protectionis, the extent and the remedies afforded to the author to protect his rights shall be settled exclusively by the law of the country where the protection is claimed.

La question prioritaire de constitutionnalité (QPC), instaurée en 2008, permet au Conseil constitutionnel de se prononcer sur la conformité d’une disposition législative déjà entrée en vigueur, aux « droits et libertés que la Constitution garantit ». Les effets substantiels des décisions QPC, c'est-à-dire la suppression ou la modification d’une disposition législative par le prononcé d’une inconstitutionnalité ou d’une réserve d’interprétation, peuvent se révéler importants compte tenu de la portée erga omnes de ces décisions. C’est alors par la maîtrise de leur application temporelle que les effets substantiels vont être encadrés voire modérés. Certains effets temporels revêtent un caractère automatique : la décision QPC en tant qu’elle porte sur une norme (la disposition législative en cause), s’insère dans l’ordonnancement juridique et, à ce titre, génère des conflits de normes. Par ailleurs, les effets temporels peuvent également, et surtout, être choisis par le Conseil constitutionnel, par l’utilisation de son pouvoir de modulation. Ce pouvoir a été conçu de manière à laisser une grande liberté au Conseil constitutionnel. Dans une démarche d’efficacité, le juge constitutionnel s’est fixé l’objectif de faire bénéficier le justiciable d’un« effet utile » de ses décisions et a par conséquent valorisé l’usage de la rétroactivité. Cependant, la liberté seule n’assure pas une pleine maîtrise de ce pouvoir de modulation et ce même pouvoir est parfois insuffisant pour régir les effets substantiels des décisions QPC. La thèse contribue, sur la base d’une analyse exhaustive de l’ensemble des décisions QPC du Conseil et de trèsnombreuses décisions dites « retour de QPC » des juridictions ordinaires, à étudier ces insuffisances et notamment le manque de réflexion sur la compatibilité entre la technique de la modulation et l’office du juge constitutionnel et sur la nécessité d’une collaboration avec les juridictions ordinaires. / The priority question of constitutionality (QPC), created in 2008, allows the french Constitutional Council to operate a judicial review of an adopted law. The substantial effects of a QPC decision, ie the abolition or the modification of a legislation by pronouncing its unconstitutionality or by interpreting it in accordance with the Constitution, can be considerable given the erga omnes impact of these decisions. These substantial effects can however be controlled or moderated by the temporal effects. Some temporal effects are inevitable: the QPCdecision since it concerns a norm (the law), integrates with the legal order and generates norms’ conflicts. Otherwise the temporal effects can be chosen by the Constitutional Council thanks to the ability of modulating the temporal effects of its decisions. This jurisdictional technical lets total liberty to the Constitutional Council. The court, in an efficacy perspective, sets the objectiveof giving a « useful effect » to the litigant and thus accords value to retroactivity. Yet this liberty alone isn’t enough to provide a complete control of this modulating ability and this ability can’t regulate all the substantial effects. This thesis, based on an exhaustive jurisprudential analysis ofthe QPC decisions, aims to study these difficulties and especially the lack of reflection about the compatibility of the technical into the judicial office of the court and about the essential collaboration with the ordinary jurisdictions.

Le développement des relations économiques internationales et la construction d’un espace européen intégré tant d’un point de vue économique que politique a relancé le débat sur la nationalité des sociétés. La question n’est pas tant de savoir si les sociétés commerciales disposent d’une nationalité au même titre que les personnes physiques – les solutions en la matière sont depuis longtemps acceptées par la doctrine et la jurisprudence internationales – mais plutôt de déterminer comment cette notion a évolué et s’adapte aux contraintes d’une part, d’une économie de marché mondialisée et d’autre part, du droit de l’Union européenne qui bouleverse les solutions traditionnellement admises en matière de nationalité des sociétés dans les droits internes des Etats membres. Ainsi, les critères de rattachement juridique d’une société à un Etat déterminés par les règles de droit international privé de chaque Etat s’orientent inéluctablement vers le critère anglo-saxon de l’incorporation. L’apparition de nouvelles personnes morales de droit de l’UE comme la Société européenne (SE) ou la future Société privée européenne (SPE) posent également la question de la nationalité et de la loi applicable à ce type de groupement européen. Il en est de même s’agissant des groupes de sociétés dont une réglementation de leurs activités pourrait être relancée dans le cadre du droit de l’UE. / The development of international economic relations and the construction of an integrated European area, both from an economic and a political point of view, has revived the debate on the nationality of trading companies. The question is not so much whether trading companies have a nationality on an equal footing with natural persons – solutions have long been accepted by international doctrine and jurisprudence – but rather to determine how this notion has evolved and adapted to the constraints on the one hand, of a globalized market economy and, on the other hand, of European Union law which overturns the traditionally accepted solutions of nationality of trading companies into the legal systems of Member States. Thus, the criteria for the legal connection of a company to a State determined by the rules of private international law of each Member State are inevitably directed towards the Anglo-Saxon criterion of incorporation. The emergence of new European Union legal entities such as the European Company or the future European Private Company also raises the issue of nationality and the law applicable to this type of European legal entities. The same applies to groups of companies whose regulation of their activities could be revived under European Union law.