Mobile payments: Current and emerging regulatory and contracting issues

Sitting at the heart of m-commerce and at the intersection of the value chains of the payments, mobile, retail and technology industries, mobile payments are set to grow rapidly in the short and medium terms. M-payments are giving rise to the development of a new ecosystem of market participants including card schemes, MNOs, retailers, device suppliers, service providers and trusted service managers. Key regulatory considerations arising include e- money and payment services, mobile services regulation, consumer protection, data privacy and standards. The contractual landscape linking the various parties inhabiting the ecosystem is also rapidly developing, with key issues around revenue models, customer ownership, technology development, and risk and liability. Parties involved in mobile payments will need to carefully assess their and others' roles and regulatory aspects in determining their strategy and how to approach contractual discussions.     

Regional collective security in Europe: Past patterns and future prospects

NATO's entry into the Balkan war raised salient questions about the alliance's broader mission and, more generally, about Europe's security architecture. This article confronts these questions by revisiting the debate about collective defense versus collective security as organizing principles for alliances. NATO is viewed as serving a hybrid role of promoting collective defense and regional collective security. This latter, under‐valued function relates to NATO's role in promoting internal cohesion among its members and is crucial to understanding the alliance's evolution and its persistance long after the Cold War.     

前沿生物技术发展的安全威胁：应对与展望

以基因编辑、基因驱动、合成生物学为代表的前沿生物技术正处于日新月异的飞速发展中,在医疗、农业等诸多领域为人类发展带来福祉的同时,也对国家乃至全人类的生物安全构成了严重威胁。在此背景下,世界大国在应对前沿生物技术安全威胁的几个共性问题值得重点关注:一是技术发展与技术安全的双重目标难以统筹;二是未知技术安全威胁导致不可避免的法律惩治效力滞后;三是监管的多部门合作需求与权职分工困境;四是多方利益主体参与的民主审议机制有待加强。由于中国前沿生物技术发展正处于从"跟跑"向"并跑"和部分领域"领跑"转变的关键节点,及时调整"促进"与"规制"前沿生物技术的应对措施已刻不容缓。前沿生物技术安全威胁的应对必须走到科技的前面去,对安全主体的规制更应走到科学的内部去。唯有在即将出台的国家《生物安全法》引领下全面推进生物技术安全的体制机制建设,逐步完善生物技术安全的法治体系建构,在政府主导下鼓励各利益相关方积极参与其中,才能确保前沿生物技术更好地造福于人民。     

Taming digital gatekeepers: the ‘more regulatory approach’ to antitrust law

Antitrust enforcement and competition policy in the digital economy is high on the agenda of authorities and policymakers. The distinctive features of digital markets and the strategic role played by large platforms apparently require a rethinking of the antitrust regime. Several reform proposals point to the need to integrate the antitrust toolkit with ex ante measures since there is a risk that ex post enforcement would be too slow to successfully keep markets competitive and contestable. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the invoked regulatory approach reflects the distinctive structural features of digital markets or whether it is just an enforcement short-cut.     

Why rehabilitate Stalin?

J. Arch Getty, Origins of the Great Purges: The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered 1933–1938 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). Pp.275; £25.

Robert Conquest, Inside Stalin's Secret Police: NVKD Politics 1936–39 (London: Macmillan, 1985). Pp.222; £29.50.     

Antipodean dilemmas

Nicky Hager, Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network (Nelson, New Zealand: Craig Potten, 1996). Pp.299, index. NP. ISBN 908802–35–8.