Christoph G. Paulus

Das vorliegende Lehrbuch stellt eine kompakte, umfassende und insbesondere für Studenten bestens geeignete Präsentation des für das Studium erforderlichen Stoffes dar. In klarer, gut leserlicher Sprache geschrieben vermittelt es Anschaulichkeit dieser oftmals der Sprödigkeit verdächtigten Materie, indem es einen ganz eigenständigen, nämlich an dem typischen Verfahrensablauf orientierten Aufbau wählt. Nicht nur, dass dem Leser dadurch der Stellenwert der jeweiligen Rechtsfiguren in ihrem jeweiligen Kontext vor Augen geführt wird; dieser diesem Buch zum Alleinstellungsmerkmal verhelfende Aufbau gestattet es darüberhinaus auch jedem ausländischen Interessierten, die Struktur des deutschen Rechts besser zu erkennen. Weiterführende Fragen stellen schließlich noch den Bezug zu anderen Rechtsmaterien her.

Auch wenn das Thema - naturgemäß - bereits viel diskutiert und beschrieben worden ist, eröffnen sich doch neue Aspekte, wenn man mit strikter Konzentration auf eine rechtshistorische Betrachtungsweise den geschriebenen Text analysiert. Genau das tut der vorliegende Band und kommt zu dem geradezu zwangsläufigen Ergebnis, dass Jesus im völligen Einklang mit den Regeln des römischen Straf- und Prozessrechts verurteilt worden ist. Überspitzt formuliert, wäre ihm das gleiche Schicksal widerfahren, wenn er nicht in Jerusalem, sondern irgendwo sonst im Römischen Reich angeklagt worden wäre.

The Eurozone crisis which started in spring 2010 as a Greek budget crisis has alerted Europeans that the issue of defaulting sovereigns is not one reserved just for the poor and poorest countries on this globe. The crisis painfully amplified that developed countries, too, might be hit by this phenomenon. To be sure, this insight is far from novel - the history of defaulting states reaches back into history for at least two millennia. And yet, lawyers have surprisingly abstained more or less completely from discussing this subject and developing possible solutions. Beginning with the Argentina crisis in 2001, this neglect began to vanish to a certain degree and this movement got some momentum in 2010 by the Eurozone crisis. The present book collects contributions from authors most of whom have participated in a conference on this issue in January 2012 at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The presentations, thus, provide a unique overview of the present discussion both from an economic and legal perspective.

At a time when there are still a number of voices calling for the Internet to remain a law-free zone, a whole bundle of conflicts have already emerged, many of which have found their way to lawyers and the courts in a substantial number of different jurisdictions. It surely now cannot be doubted that the Internet, like any other place in the world where people come together and follow their own interests, needs rules to be developed for the handling of such conflicts. Lawyers have already reacted and have created a new area of law, commonly called "law of the Internet" or "cyberlaw". This area, however, is far from being strictly defined. It touches on many existing areas of law, but at the same time it deals with a wholly new medium - cyberspace - which itself is subject to constant change and development. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that in a number of cases the predictions as to how this law will look at some selected moment in the future are vague and uncertain. This is particularly true for the commercial side of the Internet, for which the term "e-commerce" has been coined. So rapid have been the developments of e-commerce, that it is now frequently said that this is the future of any commerce and that it carries the potential for enormous growth - at least for the business to business ("B2B") sector. This text covers some important legal issues arising in e-commerce.