The Yahoo Case: How to Reconsider State Sovereignty in the Internet Age

20 Pages Posted: 15 Sep 2011

See all articles by Gerlinde Berger-Walliser

Gerlinde Berger-Walliser

University of Connecticut - School of Business; University of Connecticut - School of Law

Franck Valencia

ICN Business School

Date Written: Decemebr 1, 2008

Abstract

The Yahoo! Inc. case illustrates the question of which law to apply to the Internet and the limits of state sovereignty in a borderless “virtual” world. In this legal dispute Yahoo! Inc. had been charged by several French associations with violating French criminal law and public order by hosting websites offering NAZI items for sale. The French judge showed sufficient references of the case to the French territory and in so far uses the forum delicti principle in order to acknowledge French jurisdiction over the case. Nevertheless even if the possibility for the French user to access certain unlawful contents on the internet exists, other criterions might be considered when searching for the applicable law to the Internet. An additional problem in these cases is how to apply a decision affecting only French users to the worldwide web.

Note: Downloadable document is in French.

Keywords: Sovereignty, Internet Law, jurisdiction, conflict of laws, plurilocalisation, forum delicti, freedom of expression, ordre public

JEL Classification: K33

Suggested Citation

Berger-Walliser, Gerlinde and Valencia, Franck, The Yahoo Case: How to Reconsider State Sovereignty in the Internet Age (Decemebr 1, 2008). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1927461 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1927461

Gerlinde Berger-Walliser (Contact Author)

University of Connecticut - School of Business ( email )

368 Fairfield Road
Storrs, CT 06269-2041
United States

University of Connecticut - School of Law ( email )

65 Elizabeth Street
Hartford, CT 06105
United States

Franck Valencia

ICN Business School ( email )

13 rue du Marechal Ney
Nancy, 54000
France

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
155
Abstract Views
836
Rank
343,582
PlumX Metrics