NJCL 2/2011 includes three articles and a Special Edition 2011 with an additional four articles.
The articles in NJCL 2/2011 discuss aspects and initiatives for sustainable development of both national and regional economies in a way that promotes also indirect policy values such as cultural and environmental richness. This issue discusses both sides of internationalization of law, where promotion of international sales law, a lex mercatoria, has benefits, and where too much harmonization, e.g. the TRIPS Agreement, may have adverse effect on weaker economies and the realization of other (than economic) values.
Prof. Benjamin Richardson discusses Sovereign Wealth Funds as tools for socially responsible investment and promoters of sustainable development. He compares the Norwegian Government Pension Fund and New Zealand Superannuation Fund and concludes that both allow for substituting mere high financial returns for more sustainable and socially responsible long-term choices. Neither fund is, however, mandated by law to promote socially responsible investment, a step, which according to Richardson, in the long run is necessary to promote, not just long-term investment, but sustainable development.
Adj. Prof. Peter Mazzacano compares different national and historical roots for the doctrine of non-performance or force majeure, and argues that Article 79 of CISG, despite its wording, entails such a commercial norm. He shows how international sales norms may be created from national doctrines with different background and origin, to serve the purposes of international trade. LL.M. Elina Raitanen discusses regulatory incentives for biodiversity conservation under EU competition law. She assesses means and avenues for reaching the goal of sustainable environmental development within the framework of promoting competition and the functioning of the common market without erecting barriers to trade.
The NJCL Special Edition 2011 is compiled from excellent papers written by law students in the Innovation and Communications Law (ICL)-program at the Faculty of Law at the University of Turku. First, Magnea Fridgeirsdottir discusses ISP liability for trademark infringement in light of the EUCJ ruling in the Google Adwords-case. Second, Satu Majamaa argues that enriching the international intellectual property framework with human rights guarantees allows for developing countries to adopt innovation policies that promote sustainable local development and preservation of also non-Western cultural values. Third, Katrin Puolakainen discusses the problems inherent in protecting innovation in new fields without unduly blocking further research and development. She discusses the practical and legal pressure that nanotechnology innovations place on the patent system. Lastly, Elli Välimäki presents a thorough analysis of different means of calculating a reasonable royalty in return of a compulsory license of a pharmaceutical product. With the launch of the 2-year, English-language, Master’s Program, Law in the Information Society (LIS) at the Faculty of Law in 2011, we expect annual contributions for the NJCL also in the future.
We are also pleased that the NJCL will be included in the directories of EBSCOhost, AUSLII, and WORDLII, thus furthering the even wider circulation of the articles reviewed and published by the NJCL.
Wishing NJCL-readers a peaceful holiday season and auspicious New Year 2012
Katja Weckström
Editor-in-Chief
Nordic Journal of Commercial Law
Sovereign Wealth Funds and the Quest for Sustainability: Insights from Norway and New Zealand (Benjamin Richardson)
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Force Majeure, Impossibility, Frustration & the Like: Excuses for Non-Performance; the Historical Origins and Development of an Autonomous Commercial Norm in the CISG (Peter J. Mazzacano)
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EU State Aid Regulation and Incentives for Forest Biodiversity Conservation – Study of the Constraints (Elina Raitanen)
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Google’s Liability under EU Law for Trademark Infringements committed through the Adwords System (Magnea Fridgeirsdottir)
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Intellectual Property Law and Human Rights: Finding an Intertwined Way to Promote Development in Developing Countries (Satu Majamaa)
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Current Issues in Patenting Nanotechnology (Katrin Puolakainen)
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Calculation of Royalties in Compulsory Licensing of Pharmaceutical Patents in Europe – How Much is Justified? (Elli Välimäki)
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