P2P网络借贷诉讼的程序选择与适用

网络借贷由于具有交易手续便捷、贷款门槛低和操作灵活等特点,可以满足小微企业和个人的资金需求,提高社会闲散资金的利用率,因此在短时间内获得了较快的发展。按照P2P公司是否为贷款者提供担保为标准,可初步将所有的P2P网络贷款业务分成无抵押无担保、无抵押有担保以及有抵押有担保三种类型。在每一种类型中,由于民事主体间所涉法律关系的不同,导致了纷争发生后各主体维护自身权益方式的差异,决定了因P2P网络贷款引发的纷争所适用诉讼程序的迥然有异。     

An experimental model of regulating the sharing economy in China: The case of online car hailing

Online car hailing represents a disruptive innovation model in the sharing economy and requires a new regulatory response. China's attempts to regulate this emerging industry can be considered highly experimental model. To relieve the pressure from offline competitors and to clarify the ambiguous legal status of online car hailing, China currently enforces a strict regulatory scheme through what can be described as a central-local dual system. Questions, however, have arisen regarding the legality, proportionality and effectiveness of this approach. Moreover, the current system's choice for a segmented market strategy heavily impairs the sustainable development of the sharing economy. Therefore, the adoption of Internet-based regulations for online car hailing might create better prospects to establish a fairly competitive market as well as to further boost the ever dynamic Internet sharing economy in China.     

行为金融信息中介的网贷平台信息披露规则

从金融属性上看,网贷平台提供的是借贷信息中介服务。信息披露是其主营业务内容,平台不能参与借贷交易,否则将使流动性等风险大量集中到平台并引发严重后果。从法律性质来看,网贷平台则是借贷居间商,应当向交易双方履行相应的信息披露义务。网贷业务兼具金融和网络化特点,我国《合同法》第425条的一般性规定无法有效规制网贷平台的信息披露行为。P2P网络借贷信息披露监管规范虽初具体系,但还需围绕投资者等金融消费者保护这一根本宗旨进行改进,使信息披露内容以普通消费者等客户认知水平和需求为导向,信息披露义务的履行贯穿借贷合同存续的全过程,平台违反信息披露义务应当承担相应的民事责任等。     

China's new regulatory regime tailored for the sharing economy: The case of Uber under Chinese local government regulation in comparison to the EU,US, and the UK

Although Uber's arrival in China has resulted in disruptive competition for incumbent taxi companies, it offers an attractive alternative in China's supply-demand-imbalanced urban passenger transport system. China's regulatory regime for Uber has evolved in three stages: from the regulatory vacuum prior to 2015 to its official legalization in 2015–2016, and the enactment of numerous local regulations in 2016, with specific and more demanding requirements for Uber. This policy is a part of the Chinese approach to the gradual liberalization of the urban passenger transport market. Policymakers should consider ‘fair competition’ as the guiding principle to balance the interests of sharing firms and incumbent service providers, as well as between different sharing firms. The core value of this principle lies in the benefits it provides for consumers and the way it engenders a pro-competitive market environment. The labor protection arrangements for sharing firms’ laborers should be more flexible and diversified. In order to recognize whether an Uber-Driver is an employee or independent contractor, a new standard taking into account a range of factors should be established through collective negotiations between the participants of the sharing economy, and dialogues between members of the judiciary, academics, and the policymakers. Further, consumer protection law and personal data protection provisions should apply when sharing firms misuse their distinctive algorithmic management model to compete unfairly to the detriment of consumers and other users. Ex ante regulatory measures designed to protect the personal data of users should be introduced for deployment in the context of the sharing economy. When enforcing these rules, a balance should be struck ensuring free data flow that is essential to sharing firms’ innovation and competition, and the need to ensure the level of data security required to underpin a well-functioning sharing society.     

A forensic examination of four popular cross‐platform file‐sharing apps with Wi‐Fi P2P

File‐sharing apps with Wi‐Fi hotspot or Wi‐Fi Direct functions become more popular. They can work on multiple platforms and allow users to transfer files in a concealed manner. However, when criminals use these apps in illegal activities, it becomes an important issue for investigators to find digital evidence on multiple platforms. At present, there are few studies on this topic, and most of them are limited to the single platform problem. In this paper, we propose a forensic examination method for four popular cross‐platform file‐sharing apps with Wi‐Fi hotspot and Wi‐Fi Direct functions: Zapya, SHAREit, Xender, and Feem. We use 22 static and live forensic tools for 11 platforms to acquire, analyze, and classify the forensic artifacts. In our experiments, we find many useful forensic artifacts and classify them into six categories. The experimental results can support law enforcement investigations of digital evidence and provide information for future studies on other cross‐platform file‐sharing apps.     

To share is fair: The changing face of China's fair use doctrine in the sharing economy and beyond

Copyrighted works are greatly entwined with the concept of the sharing economy because of their status as informational public goods. Unlike commercial sharing models that address tangible goods such as bikes and houses, the sharing of which is limited by their physical nature, sharing models for intangible copyrighted works such as Google Books and live game webcasting must account for the comparatively unfettered ability for these to be shared. Accordingly, these models are more focused on exploiting such works to their full commercial potential. However, these sharing models are to a large extent based on the unauthorised exploitation of copyrighted works and will be unworkable if the related copyright issues cannot be solved. The interest that copyright owners have in exclusivity must thus be balanced with the public's interest in further exploitation of copyrighted works. Article 22 of the Copyright Law of China outlines an exhaustive list of copyright exceptions; such a restrictive list is incompatible with the sharing economy. The Chinese courts have realised this problem and have gone beyond the law in their judgments, taking a cue from their US counterparts. However, many of these decisions appear to be inconsistent with one another.To address the aforementioned problems, this paper examines the latest proposed amendment to the Copyright Law of China and proposes several legislative and judicial actions that could help promote the sharing economy. At the legislative level, enacting legislation based on a refined open-ended fair use model is necessary to promote the development of the sharing economy. At the judicial level, Chinese courts should employ the concept of transformative use to correctly interpret legislation based on the proposed open-ended model. With transformative use as the cornerstone of copyright policy, the public gains the freedom to share others’ works, participate in the innovation process, and create works with new value. Moreover, authors would retain an incentive to create works under such a legal regime because market substitution will not occur if a work is used for a different expressive purpose than that for which the work was originally created. Thus, a balance can be achieved between promoting the sharing economy and protecting the exclusivity of copyright in China.     

Destructive sharing economy: A passage from status to contract

On the surface, the sharing economy only enables users to make the transactions of under-utilized resources over their two-sided platforms. An in-depth exploration of its sudden success reveals three distinctive features of this new business model, namely web search engine, proliferation of smart handhelds and user-generated reputation feedback mechanisms. All of these technological innovations not only inflict destructive changes to our social structure, but also lead to difficulties in an automatic inclusion of the sharing economy into the current regulatory framework. Two changes have raised particular attention. First, sharing platforms are capable of building a democratized private trust mechanism, in addition to the traditional government-monopolized public licensing system. Second, the vertical disintegration feature of the sharing economy considerably blurs the borderline between business and consumers, and between employers and employees. For the purpose of establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for all online and offline activities, it is necessary to differentiate the sharing economy into those with offline competitors and those without offline competitors. With regard to the former, regulators are encouraged to embrace the sharing economy and meanwhile deregulate offline competitors. In relation to the latter, a three-condition analytical framework is proposed in order to strike a balance between promoting innovation and protecting the existing rights of others.     

中小企业融资困境之破解对策

由于中小企业在经济中的重要作用，国家应激励金融机构向中小企业贷款，并建立政府担保的中小企业贷款项目，同时创建对中小企业的减免税机制。应构建中小企业融资的社会中介法律制度，如中小企业的征信机构，借贷风险评估机构，参与担保机构，提供借贷双方信息的中介机构，中小企业成长的辅导机构等。在立法上，要修改和落实《中小企业促进法》，并以完善民间借贷为核心，制定《中小金融业法》，允许适当的利率市场化，适度放宽中小企业之间借贷法律效力以促进中小企业融资。要完善中小企业融资的司法保障制度。     

Taming the few: Platform regulation,independent audits,and the risks of capture created by the DMA and DSA

In its attempt to better regulate the platform economy, the European Commission recently proposed a Digital Markets Act (DMA) and a Digital Services Act (DSA). While the DMA addresses worries about digital markets not functioning properly, the DSA is concerned with societal harms stemming from the dissemination of (illegal) content on platforms. Both proposals focus on the relative size of platforms. The DMA applies to ‘gatekeeper’ platforms and the DSA has a special regime of scrutiny for ‘very large online platforms’ (VLOPs). Focusing on size, however, can have negative consequences for the enforcement of the DSA: First, risks disseminated by platforms below the VLOP-threshold reside in a regulatory blind spot. Second, VLOPs may leverage their market power against their new mandatory auditors and risk assessors, a threat theorised as ‘audit capture’ in this article. As a result, societal risks may remain undiscovered or downplayed and consumers and citizens may be harmed. This article traces the origin of the size criteria in the legislative history of the DMA and DSA proposals. It argues for safeguards against audit capture and adverse incentive structures in the DSA. The article draws on the debate on audit reform in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007–2008 to provide blueprints for fixing the regulatory gap.     

Tripartite perspective on the copyright-sharing economy in China

Internet and digital technologies have facilitated copyright sharing in an unprecedented way, creating significant tensions between the free flow of information and the exclusive nature of intellectual property. Copyright owners, users, and online platforms are the three major players in the copyright system. These stakeholders and their relations form the main structure of the copyright-sharing economy. Using China as an example, this paper provides a tripartite perspective on the copyright ecology based on three categories of sharing, namely unauthorized sharing, altruistic sharing, and freemium sharing. The line between copyright owners, users, and platforms has been blurred by rapidly changing technologies and market forces. By examining the strategies and practices of these parties, this paper illustrates the opportunities and challenges for China's copyright industry and digital economy. The paper concludes that under the shadow of the law, a sustainable copyright-sharing model must carefully align the interests of businesses and individual users.     

The challenges of applying turnover threshold to the sharing economy for control of concentrations between undertakings in China

The existing notification threshold for Chinese control of concentrations between undertakings is a turnover threshold, complemented by a market share threshold. The business model adopted by platform enterprises in the sharing economy, where services are provided free and subsidies are given to the platform's basic users, make it very hard for platform enterprises to produce notable turnover for a long period of time; therefore, the turnover threshold is unlikely to be satisfied in the context of concentrations. On the other hand, it is also not appropriate to apply the traditional methodology of constitutionality analysis and the SSNIP (Small but Significant and Non-Transitory Increase in Price) test to define the relevant market for the sharing economy, which is characterized by a two-sided market and cross-group network externalities. The size-of-transaction threshold reflects the importance of the number of basic users to the market power possessed by platform enterprise and has the same advantages of transparency and certainty. Therefore, legislation can be used to introduce the size-of-transaction threshold to Chinese control of concentrations between undertakings in addition to the traditional turnover threshold.     

Mortgage origination fraud and the global economic crisis

Research Summary The study outlined in this article analyzed the responses of 23 subjects previously and currently employed in the subprime lending industry to understand the implications and role of white-collar crime in the contemporary subprime mortgage crisis and to document the rationalizations that offenders use to explain their involvement in mortgage-related crimes. The subjects represented five sectors of the primary mortgage market, including brokerage, lender, escrow, title, and appraisal offices. Secondary sources of data for the study included media accounts, government reports, and industry studies. The research findings detail accounts of mortgage frauds in the subprime lending industry that resulted from inadequate regulation, the indiscriminate use of alternative loan products, and the lack of accountability in the industry. Policy Implications The study results suggest that the problem of mortgage origination fraud would be prevented best by major reform of financial policies and lending practices that characterize the subprime mortgage industry. Several broad recommendations are proposed in this article that highlight the need to recognize the potential for insider fraud, to enhance government regulation and oversight, to tighten loan qualification requirements, and to increase standards of underwriting. Observations are offered concerning the need to highlight white-collar crime in understanding the global financial crisis and to preventing future debacles.     

Combatting peer-to-peer file sharing of copyrighted material via anti-piracy laws: Issues,trends, and solutions

This article analyses potential end-user copyright violations associated with peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and the anti-piracy efforts currently underway in order to tackle them. This article discusses international developments in terms of trends, issues and solutions aimed at addressing peer-to-peer file sharing of copyrighted material. First, the article introduces P2P file sharing, its increasing significance in the growing digital media economy, and the legal issues surrounding this topic. Next, the article provides a comparative analysis of global efforts and trends in preventing digital piracy by analyzing relevant legislation, case law and practices in multiple jurisdictions, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Sweden, and Japan. In addition, the article reviews Hong Kong's current case law and proposed legal reforms including an analysis of their deficiencies with respect to addressing P2P copyright infringement. The article concludes with an analysis of existing trends in preventive measures against copyright infringement through P2P file sharing and suggests directions on future legal and non-legal measures that Hong Kong as well as the international community can take in combating digital piracy and copyright infringement through peer-to-peer file sharing.     

Banking in the cloud: Part 1 – banks' use of cloud services

This paper looks at EU banks' use of public cloud computing services. It is based primarily on anonymised interviews with banks, cloud providers, advisers, and financial services regulators. The findings are presented in three parts. Part 1 explores the extent to which banks operating in the EU, including global banks, use public cloud computing services. It describes how banks are using cloud computing and the key drivers for doing so (such as time to market), as well as real and perceived barriers (such as misconceptions about cloud and financial services regulation), including cultural and technical/commercial aspects. It summarises how banks have approached the cloud and how cloud providers have approached the banking sector.Part 2 of this paper will cover the main legal and regulatory issues that may affect banks' use of cloud services, including how the regulation of outsourcing applies to banks' use of cloud services. Part 3 will look at the key contractual issues that arise between banks and cloud service providers, including data protection requirements, termination, service changes, and liability.All three parts of the paper can be accessed via Computer Law and Security Review's page on ScienceDirect at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02673649?sdc=2. The full list of sources is available via the same link and will be printed alongside the third part of the paper.     

中国金融法律体系如何适应WTO规则

中国金融法律体系与WTO规则存在着诸多脱节 ,中国金融立法任务更加艰巨、繁重。建立和完善现代金融法律体系是中国面临的一个重大课题。中国金融业在融入国际金融主流中能否经得起考验 ,关键要看中国金融法治化的实现程度。     

P2P服务提供者侵权责任问题研究

P2P技术自1999年诞生以来,由于其技术的本质特性不可避免地存在着许多法律上的问题,在学术界和司法界也存在过争议,这在很长一段时间使得人们对于P2P很难给予一个准确和公平的判断,从而导致对P2P服务提供者是否侵权以及如何认定侵权模棱两可。随着P2P技术的不断发展,人们对其技术的认识也日渐清晰,对其服务提供者承担责任问题也在司法实践中日渐成熟。结合中美典型案例分析P2P网络服务提供者在P2P技术的不同发展阶段承担侵权责任的问题,以期为将来P2P技术不断深入发展,司法实践中如何认定网络服务提供者的侵权责任提供借鉴。     

现代法治与民主宪政的金融解释

金融发展对一国的现代法治与民主宪政有着深远的促进作用。金融格局与工商文明构建了现代民主、法治的基石,内生化了市场对法律制度、民主宪政制度供给的需求。欧洲式的现代民主法治的建构与金融市场的发展有着极为密切的联系。正是由于有着与金融财富增长相匹配的金融民主模式,欧美国家的民主宪政得以确立。文章以金融秩序与工商文明的发展为主线,从金融视角,解读中国社会工商文明的系统累积与法律制度供给,金融工商文明的话语体系与思维方式,政府公权力与民间私权利的互动,对深刻理解与构建中国社会的现代法治与民主宪政,具有重要意义。     

我国当前民间借贷的特点、问题及其法律对策

我国当前民间借贷市场已经进入高级阶段,资金供需两旺,并具有迅速走红网络经济的发展趋势。然而,民间借贷相关立法滞后,市场监管缺位,司法主导突出,整个市场呈现出产生发展的内生化、投资主体的多元化、交易形式的电子化、法律规则的零散化、法律地位的尴尬化以及裁判结果依赖指导性解释等特征。民间借贷组织的主体地位问题、民间借贷合同的效力认定问题、民间借贷利率的法律管制问题、网络借贷平台的风险控制问题以及民间借贷交易的信息监测问题等日益突出,加强监管立法和监管机构主动执法,依法规范民间借贷行为,严厉打击高利贷,已成为金融生态建设中民间借贷法律规制的必然选择。     

The impact of court errors on liability sharing and safety regulation for environmental/industrial accidents

We focus in this paper on the effects of court errors on the optimal sharing of liability between firms and financiers, as an environmental policy instrument. Using a structural model of the interactions between firms, financial institutions, governments and courts we show, through numerical simulations, the distortions in liability sharing between firms and financiers that the imperfect implementation of government policies implies. We consider in particular the role played by the efficiency of the courts in jointly avoiding Type I (finding an innocent firm guilty of inappropriate care) and Type II (finding a guilty firm not guilty of inappropriate care) errors. This role is considered in a context where liability sharing is already distorted (when compared with first best values) due not only to the courts’ own imperfect assessment of safety care levels exerted by firms but also to the presence of moral hazard and adverse selection in financial contracting. There is also not congruence of objectives between firms and financiers on the one hand and social welfare maximization on the other. Our results indicate that an increase in the efficiency of court system in avoiding errors raises safety care level, thereby reducing the probability of accident, and allowing the social welfare maximizing government to impose a lower liability [higher] share for firms [financiers] as well as a lower standard level of care.     

Civil asset forfeiture, equitable sharing, and policing for profit in the United States

Purpose

Critics of asset forfeiture claim that forfeiture laws create financial incentives that inappropriately influence police behavior. The present study examines the relationship between measures of the financial incentive and legal burdens for civil asset forfeiture on federal equitable sharing payments to local law enforcement to determine whether police behavior is affected by different statutory incentives for forfeiture activity.

Methods

Using LEMAS and DOJ forfeiture data, this study addresses some of the limitations of previous research by using a multi-year average for forfeiture activity, an improved measure of financial incentives for law enforcement, and multiple measures of statutory burdens to law enforcement to determine the impact of forfeiture laws on forfeiture activity.

Results

Consistent with anecdotal reports and limited prior research, findings indicate that agencies in jurisdictions with more restrictive state forfeiture laws receive more proceeds through federal equitable sharing.

Conclusions

Results suggest that state and local law enforcement agencies use federal equitable sharing to circumvent their own state forfeiture laws when state laws are more burdensome or less financially rewarding to these agencies, providing additional evidence that police operations are influenced by financial incentives.