Book Reviews Kahin, Brian, and Charles Nesson (eds). Borders in Cyberspace . Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The MIT Press, 1997. Pp. xi, 374. Index. $25. The assertion that the Internet defies limitations of physical space and time, erasing national borders, is commonplace in the burgeoning literature on cyberspace. This useful collection of essays explores the implications of that assertion, emphasizing the challenges which the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) poses for national and international regulatory schemes and institutions. The first half of the book focuses on issues inherent in the nature of cyberspace, including globalization, erosion of national control, and arbitrage, as well as associated procedural issues of jurisdiction, enforcement, harmonization and alternative dispute resolution. The second half of the book offers analyses of transnational problems in six substantive areas: intellectual property, censorship, privacy, encryption, government information and consumer protection. The volume as a whole establishes that, contrary to its popular image as an unregulated zone, the GII is policed under many overlapping, contradictory regimes. While the GII eradicates spatial and temporal "borders", it also creates new borders between the virtual and physical worlds and among an assortment of "cyber-entities", including networks, newsgroups, private lists, etc. Nations, states, standard-setting entities and private enterprises all seek to establish rules governing transactions which resist categorization by geography, nationality or substantive legal area. There is no lack of regulation, merely a lack of effective enforcement. Disharmony between regulatory schemes permits arbitrage as information businesses relocate activities to take advantage of divergent regimes offering strong or weak intellectual property rights, favourable encryption and privacy policies, or "data havens". The authors offer a variety of remedies ranging from centralizing solutions, such as federal pre-emption and international harmonization and enforcement, to self-regulation by GII entities and development of a separate discipline of "cyberlaw". That the proposals vary widely and tend to be long on generalities and short on specifics accurately reflects the current debate on cyberspace regulation. Two minor caveats must be noted: despite the international flavour of the articles, most of the authors are from the United States and there is a decided focus on the US role in the GII; and, as with most print works in this rapidly changing field, readers must be wary of post-publication developments - the article on free speech, for example, predates the Supreme Court's decision in ACLU v. Reno , which struck down certain provisions of the Communications Decency Act. These minor quibbles notwithstanding, the volume offers an excellent introduction to the evolving debate over cyberspace governance. Deborah Tussey Harvard Law School
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