Nov. 4, 1999

SMU LAW SCHOOL TO HOST SYMPOSIUM ON E-COMMERCE AND XML

DALLAS (SMU) -- As the Internet transforms how business is done worldwide, new opportunities and legal challenges arise. One such innovation that gives businesses and individuals greater control over the way information is exchanged over the Internet is the new Extensible Markup Language, a newer Internet-coding standard that succeeds HTML.

Trading communities around the world today are working to define XML standards that will determine the terms and conditions under which Internet commerce will be conducted in the future. Southern Methodist University School of Law will address these new challenges and how XML will affect electronic commerce at the 1999 Roy Ray Lecture symposium from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Friday, Nov. 12, in the Walsh Classroom of the Underwood Law Library, 6550 Hillcrest Ave. The symposium is free and open to the public.

Following a welcome from SMU Law School Dean John B. Attanasio, speakers at the Roy Ray Lecture symposium are as follows:

• 9:15 --9:45 a.m. -- Commerce One, Inc. Advanced Technology Director Robert J. Glushko will give an introduction to XML, its significance and how it enables internet trading communities and marketplaces.
• 9:45 -- 10:15 a.m. -- One of the world's leading scholars in e-commerce, University of California at Berkeley School of Law Professor Pamela Samuelson, will discuss the impact of XML on intellectual property rights. In 1997, Samuelson was named a fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
• 10:15 --10:45 a.m. -- SMU Law Professor Susan Scafidi will moderate a question and discussion session, followed by 15-minute break.
• 11 --11:30 a.m. -- University of Virginia School of Law Professor Clayton P. Gillette will discuss the impact of XML on contract law, including the risks of uniformity in Internet transactions.
• 11:30 a.m. - Noon -- University of Pennsylvania Law School Professor Edward L. Rubin will discuss the impact of XML on administrative and public law.
• Noon -- 12:30 p.m. -- SMU School of Law Professor Jane Kaufman Winn will discuss the impact of XML on the regulation of electronic payment systems.
• 12:30 -- 1 p.m. -- SMU Law Professor Jeffrey Gaba will moderate a question and discussion session.

The late Roy Ray was appointed a law professor at the SMU School of Law in 1929. Except for temporary visits to other law schools and a period of leave during World War II, he served the School of Law and SMU for 41 years. During his tenure at the Law School, he contributed significantly to the legal literature in torts and evidence. Ray established the fund for the lecture program that bears his name to invite scholars of national eminence to campus for lectures and discussions of legal topics of current interest.