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January 25, 1997

To: Cyberspace Law Associates

From: Nicholas Johnson

Re: Seminar Papers

Let me say at the outset how pleased I am with the first two weeks: the enthusiasm, level of attendance and participation, sense of professional responsibility, and quality of what's been done so far.

Here are the steps we're going through. (1) An introduction to Asia/SE Asia generally; the names and location of the countries. (2) Your selection of a country. (3) Your evaluation, and our joint discussion, and report back to you on (a) what one would want to know about a country in the course of directing a client's investment there, and (b) what sources one would use to find that information. (4) Your individual exploration, and our group discussion, of the range of technologies, hardware, software and services that might be considered a part of an "information economy" -- along with the sources, and research techniques involved in that survey. (5) The development of a list of what we believe are among the, say, 25 largest global firms involved in these industries.

. . . involves assignments you may pursue in parallel rather than in series -- at least to some degree. (6) Description/report of the subsidiaries of one of these largest of the global firms. Although we are not quite ready for you to do this (Sarah Thier is pulling together some information to save you some time and effort with this one), it is not too early to start some aspects of it (as explained in "Company Selection," below). (7) Description of your country. This need not be more than a page or two. It will, ultimately, become a part of your seminar paper. There's no reason why you can't take a stab at a first draft at this point. If you've done that, let me see it and I'll give you some reactions. You will, undoubtedly, want to revise it from time to time throughout the semester as you come upon additional information, news breaks, or you discover additional research techniques and sources -- most immediately, those we will be exploring next Wednesday evening on the Web. (8) Description of the extent to which global firms (and locally owned businesses) are already doing business there. This portion, likewise, is something you could be working into a first draft at this point, will be part of your seminar paper, will be revised from time to time by you throughout the semester, and I am happy to look over.

(9) Selection of the business/"billion-dollar-bonanza" in which you propose that our client, Global Telecommunications, Media and Electronics, Inc., invest in your country. This, and the next item, while not involving much (if any) writing on your part, are nonetheless a couple of the most important decisions you'll make this semester in terms of your happiness and productivity and the utility of this seminar for your future career. They require a lot of research, knowledge, analysis, reflection and thinking on your part. If you haven't started yet, now's the time to begin this task.

(10) Related to (9), above, is coming up with the legal/public policy issue that will constitute the bulk of your paper -- and the research, thinking, writing and editing you will do on it. Based on past experience with papers written for prior "Law of Electronic Media" classes, the selection of these issues is not easy.

(a) What we are looking for are legal/public policy issues raised by the new electronics technologies and services.

(b) For starters, this needs to be a topic suitable for a law school -- as distinguished from a communications studies, journalism school, or political science -- seminar.

It would not be enough, for example, merely to describe -- however thoroughly and beautifully written -- the range of ways in which electronics has affected the practice of law (say, for example, faxed documents, videotaped depositions, computerized databases of documents in antitrust cases, and so forth). That is something any really good writer might pull off, with or without legal education.

What might work (although my mentioning it here precludes your use of it) would be an exploration of the legal and professional issues that would arise if a lawyer licensed to practice (only) in State A is consulting electronically with clients in State B (in which she is not licensed).

(c) Moreover, we need issues that are somehow uniquely information-age-based.

For example, if a Best Buy truck, filled with desktop computers, crashes into a parked car on leaving the lot, that is, in one sense, an "information age" torts case. On the other hand, the legal issues it raises are indistinguishable from those involved if a Brownberry Bread truck, delivering loaves of bread to the neighboring EconoFoods supermarket, crashes into the same car on the same parking lot.

But it's not that simple. Consider defamation. Whether a given statement is defamatory will, for the most part, not turn on whether it is posted on a computer bulletin board or spray painted on the side of a barn. Defamation is defamation. That aspect of the case makes it like the Best Buy delivery truck. On the other hand, you might focus on the relevant "community" standard in a defamation case for someone who belongs to a profession, lives in a given geographical community, but is also a part of a "virtual community" on the Web.

You get the idea.

(d) Relationship to your country. As mentioned in our discussion of the papers during the January 15 evening, your emphasis on U.S. law is expected to be somewhere between "primary" and "exclusive."

Obviously, I believe it is unrealistic and unreasonable to require that you learn an exotic foreign language and master the legal system of another country during the course of writing a paper for a two-credit-hour seminar -- at a law school that does not provide access to that nation's legal materials. However, I would hope that you would take some time (say, at least a half-hour to an hour on the Web, WestLaw or Lexis) to see what you can find out about the law of the country you have chosen as it relates to the issue you have chosen. To the extent you can find out something worth reporting, or you learn of sources and research methods for researching your country's law, you should mention that.

But the bulk of your research and writing will be with U.S. legal materials. 1. They are what we have. 2. To have mastered these issues in an American law context will be useful to you in its own right, wholly apart from your future legal and business dealings in Asian countries. 3. And, at least to some degree, the legal (and especially public policy) analyses within the U.S. legal system will likely be of some influence, or provide some basis for understanding, the law and policy of other countries on the issue as well.

(e) Of course, this little paragraph is not the last word on these considerations. The bottom line is that I encourage you to start thinking about some possible issues you'd like to pursue, and that you come talk to (or e-mail) me about your paper topic before you start with the research and writing.

One of your next assignments is to pick the global company you are going to research for the firm. Having picked it, your assignment is then relatively easy -- once you find your source. You are simply to describe (in some instances, merely machine copy) the range of subsidiaries and operations, joint agreements, stock ownership of other companies, etc., in which it is engaged. While we are waiting for the final list (see (6), above), to both (a) save you time while (b) increasing the return to you, my suggestion is that you, first, do some probing around your country to discover the dominant global corporations already doing business there. That way, your research can do double duty for you. You may be able to pick, as the company you will research, one that is heavily invested in your country. Thus, you will be, simultaneously, doing the research necessary for (8), above.

In the spirit of "constructivism" (see the entries under "Seminar Design and Philosophy" on the cls.html Web page), I would like to encourage each of you to come up with your own schedule (with a Gantt, or PERT, chart if you wish) for the production of your own paper. This is a good exercise, and habit to develop, in its own right. I reserve the right to comment on, suggest revisions to, and approve, that schedule. But I'd like for you to take first crack at putting it together. And this also enables us to accommodate, at least to a modest degree, personal preferences of yours. My only guidance would be that:

(a) you get a schedule to me, and approved, sometime before February 1

(b) you include as mileposts times for (1) your submission to me, (2) my review and return to you, and (3) the preparation, and (4) submission of final copy for each of the sub-components mentioned above

(c) you schedule times during which you will be doing (1) research, (2) initial draft writing, (3) editing and (4) such additional research and writing as may be required by my comments on your initial drafts

(d) you bear in mind (1) the advantages to you of leaving yourself free, during the last two weeks of the semester, for things other than working on this paper, thus (2) suggesting the wisdom of scheduling some early conferences with me, and (3) getting a first draft polished and submitted before spring break (say, by our March 19 class), so that, on the assumption I can get it reviewed over spring break, you will have (4) between March 31 and April 11 to put a final draft together and submit it [Note that these would be outside dates; the earlier the mileposts can be scheduled the better.]

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