A significant percentage of the purchases now made online aren’t even for tangible goods – many are for virtual items like apps, music, movies, and software. The next wave of this growth will likely be powered by mobile devices, which are becoming more capable and more ubiquitous every year, even in developing economies. 3 This rate of growth is unprecedented, and it is showing no sign of slowing down. E-Commerce accounted for 7% of all retail transactions in 2010, and almost 42% of retail transactions that year were influenced by the internet in some way. In spite of the recession, in 2009 e-Commerce sales in the US grew by 11% to reach $155.2 billion, versus a 2.5% growth rate for the rest of the economy. Today online sales are an ever-increasing slice of global commerce. The lessons learned throughout history can provide helpful guidance in determining how best to build the global resolution systems of tomorrow. The continued growth of e-commerce requires trust – from consumers, merchants and government – that cross-border transactions in electronic and mobile commerce will be adjudicated quickly, fairly and cheaply. Much like the expansion of cross-border trade in the 12 th century, the current growth of electronic and mobile commerce has created millions of cross-border disputes that require reliable resolution systems. This system of customary law served the needs of merchants for quick and fair resolutions of disputes and served the needs of dukes and kings because it created a trusted system that induced trade (and thus taxes) that would not exist otherwise. With the resurgence of ‘global’ trade in the 12 th century, merchant traders developed a merchant court system of adjudication (Lex Mercortia), that was based on centuries-old codes of conduct. But cross-border trade is by definition cross-jurisdictional trade either someone acquiesces (either to the hegemony of a 1 st century Rome or 19 th century England), or a non-territorial solution must be found. Nation-states (and before them duchies, bishoprics and city-states) are jealous of their judicial authority and resist ceding jurisdiction to dispute resolution mechanisms not of their making. Resolving disputes across borders has never been a straightforward proposition.
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