Annual Report 1999

INTRODUCTION

The Institute for Information Law can look back on a very productive year. Within one year the manual Telecommunicatierecht [Telecommunications Law] was written by staff in cooperation with a staff member of the Technical University of Delft, and deplicted the entirety of national and international telecommunications law. Both science and practice had been waiting for this book, the first copy of which was sold out in a few months. In the same year, important sub-studies were carried out in the area of telecommunications. The annual report also makes mention of the book Informatierecht [Information Law] which appeared in January 2000. The book can be seen as a companion to the above mentioned manual: the entire research area of the Institute and the theoretical bases are described and analysed.
Within the framework of the intended amendment to the Dutch Constitution to bring about a formulation of constitutional rights which aligns with the digital age, an important study Constitutionele convergentie van pers, omroep en telecommunicatie  [Constitutional convergence of press, broadcasting and telecommunications] was completed. In addition the Imprimatur project (Copyright and Electronic Commerce), which was mentioned in last years annual report, has been completed.
Bernt Hugenholtz succeeded Herman Cohen Jehoram as professor in Information Law, in particular the law of intellectual property. In November he held his inaugural speech Sleeping with the enemy, in which he drew attention to the rights of authors in the digital age.
The databank of the Institute was made accessible on the www.ivir.nl website, which was expanded. The most important recent publications can be found on this site. The site also contains important source references for the various research topics.
The above is only a small selection from a large number of publications and activities. Interested readers are referred to the full report. 

E.J. Dommering,

Managing Director