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Trade Governance In The Digital Age World Trade
Forum 1st Edition Mira Burri Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Mira Burri, Thomas Cottier
ISBN(s): 9781139136716, 1139136712
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 4.76 MB
Year: 2012
Language: english
 T R A D E G OV E R NA N C E I N T H E
D IG I TA L AG E

he development of new digital technologies has resulted in signiicant

transformations in daily life, from the arrival of online shopping to more
fundamental changes in the ways we work and communicate. Many of these
changes raise questions that transcend market access and liberalisation and
demand cooperation and coherent regulatory design. International trade
regulation has hitherto not reacted in a forward-looking manner to the
digital revolution; particularly at the multilateral level, legal engineering
has yielded few tangible results.
his book examines whether WTO laws possess the necessary lexibil-
ity and resilience to accommodate the changes brought about by burgeon-
ing digital trade. By revealing both the potential and the limitations of the
WTO framework, it provides a broad picture of the interaction between
digital technologies and trade regulation; links the oten disconnected dis-
courses of international trade law, intellectual property and cyberlaw; and
explores discrete problems in diferent domains of global trade regulation.

mira burri is a Senior Research Fellow at the World Trade Institute

and Lecturer in International Media Law at the University of Bern,
Switzerland.

thomas cottier is Professor of European and International Economic

Law at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He is Managing Director of both
the World Trade Institute and the Institute of European and International
Economic Law.
T R A D E G OV E R NA N C E I N
T H E D IG I TA L AG E
World Trade Forum

Edited by
M I R A BU R R I A N D T HOM A S C O T T I E R
 cambridge university press
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town,
Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City
Cambridge University Press
32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107022430

© Cambridge University Press 2012

his publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2012

Printed in the United States of America

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

Trade governance in the digital age : World Trade Forum / edited by
Mira Burri and homas Cottier.
pages cm
Edited contributions from the World Trade Forum 2010.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-107-02243-0
1. Foreign trade regulation 2. Corporate governance. 3. International law.
4. World Trade Organization. 5. Electronic commerce – Law and legislation.
6. General Agreement on Tarifs and Trade (Organization) I. Burri, Mira,
editor of compilation. II. Cottier, homas, editor of compilation.
III. World Trade Forum (14th : 2010 : Berne, Switzerland)
K3943.T71 2012
382′.92–dc23 2012003070

ISBN 978-1-107-02243-0 Hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or

accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in
this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is,
or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
 CONTENTS

List of tables and igures page viii

List of contributors ix
Preface xxi
List of abbreviations xxiii

1. Introduction: Digital technologies and international

trade regulation 1
mira burri and thomas cottier
Part I Conceptualising trade 2.0
2. Principles for trade 2.0 17
anupam chander
3. Global information law: Some systemic thoughts 45
christian tietje
Pa rt I I Old and new buzzwords in the digital
trade discourse
4. Convergence: A buzzword to remain? 65
david luff
5. Network neutrality: he global dimension 91
pierre larouche
6. Fostering innovation and trade in the global information society:
he diferent facets and roles of interoperability 123
urs gasser and john palfrey

v
vi Contents

Pa rt III he state of play in trade and trade

regulation: Prospects for change
7. GATS classiication issues for information and
communication technology services 157
lee tuthill and martin roy
8. Towards coherent rules for digital trade: Building on
eforts in multilateral versus preferential trade
negotiations 179
sacha wunsch-vincent and arno hold
9. Better regulation for digital markets: A new look at
the Reference Paper 222
rohan kariyawasam
10. Googling for the trade–human rights nexus in China:
Can the WTO help? 247
henry gao
11. he puzzling interaction of trade and public morals
in the digital era 276
panagiotis delimatsis
Pa rt IV he impact of digital technologies on
the global intellectual property regime
12. TRIPS encounters the Internet: An analogue treaty
in a digital age, or the irst trade 2.0 agreement? 299
antony taubman
13. Country clubs, empiricism, blogs and innovation:
he future of international intellectual property
norm making in the wake of ACTA 323
daniel gervais
14. New forms of governance for digital orphans:
Copyright litigation, licences and legal information 344
jeremy de beer
 Contents vii

Part V Digital technologies, intellectual

property and development
15. From consensus to controversy: he WIPO Internet
Treaties and lessons for intellectual property
norm setting in the digital age 367
ahmed abdel latif
16. he global digital divide as impeded access to content 396
mira burri
17. Harnessing information and communication
technologies for development: he trade-related
technical assistance perspective 421
martin labb é
18. Making use of e-mentoring to support innovative
entrepreneurs in Africa 433
philipp aerni and dominik rü egger

Index 455
 TA B L E S A N D F I G U R E S

Tables
5.1. Overview of network neutrality concerns and regulatory responses
in the United States and the European Union page 119
7.1. he classiication of audiovisual services according to the W/120 168
8.1. Performance of the WTO versus preferential trade deals on digital
trade issues as raised in the WTO Work Programme on E-commerce 186
8.2. Plurilateral requests and cross-border trade in electronic services 191
8.3. Provisions of e-commerce chapters in bilateral trade agreements 195
8.4. Deep e-commerce regulatory issues in selected preferential
trade agreements 197
8.5. he U.S. and EU templates for liberalising digital trade 198
8.6. Deep e-commerce integration rules in preferential trade agreements 206
8.7. Provisions relevant to digital trade in IPR chapters of PTAs 210
8.8. Inclusion of IPR provisions relating to digital trade in the examined
twenty-six PTAs 212
15.1. Developing countries and LDCs parties to the WIPO Internet Treaties 369
16.1. World Internet usage and population statistics 399

Figures
9.1. he layered-policy model 226

viii
 CONTRIBUTORS

Ahmed Abdel Latif

International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development
Ahmed Abdel Latif is an Egyptian career diplomat who has taken an active
part in global debates and processes on intellectual property, public pol-
icy and development. Since 2007, he has been Programme Manager for
Intellectual Property and Technology at the International Centre for Trade
and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). He previously worked at the
Permanent Mission of Egypt to the United Nations and the World Trade
Organization (WTO) in Geneva (2000–2004), where he was a delegate to
the TRIPS Council and to the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO), as well as coordinator of the African Group at WIPO (2004).
In this context, Mr Abdel Latif was closely involved with the launch of
the WIPO Development Agenda initiative and the Access to Knowledge
(A2K) movement. He holds an LLM in Public International Law (London
School of Economics and Political Science, University of London), a BA in
Political Science (American University in Cairo) and the Diplôme of the
Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po Paris).

Philipp Aerni
World Trade Institute
Philipp Aerni graduated with a degree in geography and economics
from the University of Zurich and received his PhD from the Institute of
Agricultural Economics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
Zurich. He continued his postdoctoral research at Harvard University and
the Institute for Comparative and International Studies at ETH Zurich.
His main research interest is innovation for development. Apart from his
current work at the World Trade Institute in Bern, Philipp is a co-founder
and acting Managing Director of the African Technology Development
Forum in Geneva and teaches a course in science, technology and public
policy at ETH Zurich.
ix
x List of contributors

Mira Burri
World Trade Institute
Mira Burri is Senior Research Fellow at the Swiss National Centre of
Competence in Research (NCCR): Trade Regulation and Lecturer in
International Media Law at the University of Bern. Her present research
focuses on the interaction between digital technologies and the law, in
particular on shaping new media and cultural policies. Mira Burri is the
author of EC Electronic Communications and Competition Law (2007)
and co-editor of Free Trade versus Cultural Diversity (2004), Digital Rights
Management: he End of Collecting Societies? (2005), as well as more
recently, Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions in a
Digital Environment (2008) and Governance of Digital Game Environments
and Cultural Diversity (2010). Mira is a member of the editorial board of
the International Journal of Communications Law and Policy and of the
International Journal of Cultural Property, as well as a rapporteur to the
UK Economic and Social Research Council. Mira has acted as a consultant
to the European Parliament on cultural diversity matters.

Anupam Chander
University of California, Davis
Anupam Chander is a leading scholar of globalisation and digitisation and
professor at UC Davis. He has been a Visiting Professor at Yale Law School,
the University of Chicago Law School, Stanford Law School and Cornell
Law School. Among his publications is Securing Privacy in the Internet Age
(co-edited with Lauren Gelman and Margaret Jane Radin, 2008) and he
Electronic Silk Road (forthcoming). He has published articles in the Yale
Law Journal, the University of Chicago Law Review, the California Law
Review and the NYU Law Review. His writing has received honours from
the Association of American Law Schools and has been recognised by the
Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum. A graduate of Harvard College and
Yale Law School, he clerked for Chief Judge Jon O. Newman of the Second
Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge William A. Norris of the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals. He practiced law in New York and Hong Kong with
Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton, representing foreign sovereigns in
international inancial transactions.

Thomas Cottier
World Trade Institute
homas Cottier, Managing Director of the World Trade Institute, is
Professor of European and International Economic Law at the University
 List of contributors xi

of Bern and Director of the Institute of European and International

Economic Law. He leads the Swiss national research programme on trade
law and policy (NCCR Trade Regulation). He was a Visiting Professor at
the Graduate Institute, Geneva, and currently teaches at the Europa Institut
Saarbrücken, Germany, and at Wuhan University, China. Professor Cottier
has a long-standing involvement in GATT/WTO activities. He served on
the Swiss negotiating team of the Uruguay Round from 1986 to 1993, irst
as chief negotiator on dispute settlement and subsidies for Switzerland and
subsequently as chief negotiator on TRIPS. He held several positions in
the Swiss External Economic Afairs Department and was the Deputy–
Director General of the Swiss Intellectual Property Oice. In addition to
his conceptual work in the ields of services and intellectual property and
legal counselling, he has served as a member or chair of several GATT and
WTO panels.

Jeremy de Beer
University of Ottawa
Jeremy de Beer is a Law Professor at the University of Ottawa, specialising
in technology and intellectual property law. Educated at the Universities of
Oxford and Saskatchewan, he practised law with the Department of Justice,
as counsel to the Copyright Board, ater clerking at Canada’s Federal Court
of Appeal and working at the law irm of Macleod Dixon LLP. Professor de
Beer teaches, among other things, seminars on global intellectual property
policy and interdisciplinary studies of digital music. His research impacts
on policy debates and practical behaviour around intellectual property in
high-technology sectors from Internet communications to life sciences.
He is an active consultant for law irms, creator groups, technology irms,
government departments, think tanks and international organisations.

Panagiotis Delimatsis
Tilburg University
Panagiotis Delimatsis is Associate Professor of Law at Tilburg University,
the Netherlands. Panagiotis has held positions with the WTO Appellate
Body Secretariat, UNCTAD and the International Centre for Sports
Studies in Neuchâtel, and has taught WTO law, the law of the EU internal
market and EU external relations at several European universities. His
ields of interest include the regulation of international trade, trade in ser-
vices in particular, as well as EU law. His main ields of research include
regulatory diversity in services, regulatory reform and principles of good
governance in the goods and services domain and the efects of domestic
xii List of contributors

regulatory structures on factor mobility. Panagiotis regularly advises gov-

ernments and undertakes projects relating to international trade and par-
ticipation of developing countries. Panagiotis has published extensively on
EU and international trade law issues. He is the author of International
Trade in Services and Domestic Regulations – Necessity, Transparency, and
Regulatory Diversity (2007). He has also contributed chapters to vari-
ous edited volumes and has published articles in peer-reviewed journals,
including the Journal of International Economic Law, the European Journal
of International Law and the World Trade Review.

Henry Gao
Singapore Management University
Henry Gao is a tenured Law Professor at Singapore Management
University. With law degrees from China, the United Kingdom and the
United States, Henry started his professional career in Geneva as the irst
Chinese lawyer at the WTO Secretariat with stints at the Appellate Body
Secretariat and the Trade in Services Division. Before moving to Singapore
in late 2007, he taught law at the University of Hong Kong, where he
was also the Deputy Director of the East Asian International Economic
Law and Policy Programme. A frequent commentator in international
media such as the Wall Street Journal, CNN and Bloomberg, Henry has
also been invited to speak at major international conferences around the
world. In addition to regular lectures at all three universities in Singapore,
he has taught trade law elsewhere in Asia and beyond, including at the
Academy of International Trade and Investment Law in Macau and the
Master in International Economic Law and Policy (IELPO) programme
in Barcelona. Henry edited the book China’s Participation in the WTO
(2005) and has published many articles in academic journals including the
Journal of International Economic Law and the Journal of World Trade. His
current research focuses on the interaction between China’s trade policy
and WTO rules, as well as WTO dispute settlement, trade in services and
free trade agreements.

Urs Gasser
Harvard University
Urs Gasser is the Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet
and Society. Before joining the Berkman Center in this capacity, he was
Associate Professor of Law at the University of St. Gallen, where he led
the Research Center for Information Law as Faculty Director. Gasser’s
 List of contributors xiii

research and teaching focus on information law and policy and the inter-
action between law and innovation. Current research projects – several
of them in collaboration with leading research institutions in the United
States, Europe and Asia – explore policy and educational challenges for
the future generation of digital natives, the regulation of digital media
and technology (with emphasis on IP law), ICT interoperability, the insti-
tutional settings for fostering entrepreneurship, and the law’s impact on
innovation and risk in the ICT space. Urs Gasser has published and edited
six books and has written more than sixty articles in books, law reviews
and professional journals. He is the co-author (with John Palfrey) of Born
Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (2008), which
is being translated into ten languages, including Chinese and Russian.

Daniel Gervais
Vanderbilt University
Daniel Gervais focuses on international intellectual property law, hav-
ing spent ten years researching and addressing policy issues on behalf of
the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO), the International Confederation of Societies
of Authors and Composers (CISAC) and Copyright Clearance Center
(CCC) before entering the academy. Before joining Vanderbilt Law
School in 2008, Professor Gervais was Acting Dean of the Common Law
Section at the University of Ottawa. Professor Gervais practised law in
Montreal from 1985 to 1990 as an associate with Clark Woods and later
as a partner with the technology law irm BCF. From 1990 to 1991, he
was a consultant and legal oicer with the WTO, where he was actively
involved in the negotiations of the TRIPS Agreement. In 1992, he joined
WIPO and was promoted the following year to Head of the Copyright
Projects section, where he prepared WIPO studies and international
meetings on the impact of digital technology on copyright and neigh-
bouring rights. In 1995, Professor Gervais joined CISAC as Assistant
Secretary General, and in 1997 he moved to the United States to become
Director of International Relations at CCC, the largest reprographic
rights organisation in the world. He chaired the sectoral work on cul-
ture, communications and information at the Canadian Commission for
UNESCO. Professor Gervais currently serves as a panellist at the WIPO
Arbitration and Mediation Centre. He has been a Visiting Professor at
the Universities of Grenoble, Montpellier Nantes, and Haifa and at the
University of Puerto Rico, and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford Law School.
xiv List of contributors

He is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and has lectured

at the Institute of European Studies of Macau. He was the 2004 Trilateral
Distinguished Scholar at Michigan State University. He received an Early
Researcher Award from Ontario, Canada’s Ministry of Research and
Innovation, the only law professor in the province to receive the award
in that round. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed
Journal of World Intellectual Property.

Arno Hold
Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property
Arno Hold studied political science and international law at the
Universities of Bern, Zurich and Bologna and is a graduate of the World
Trade Institute’s MILE programme. He currently works as Coordinator
for International Cooperation Projects at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Intellectual Property. His previous professional experience includes posi-
tions as a Project Oicer at a research centre in Geneva, a business devel-
opment consultant in Singapore and a research assistant at the Institute
for Public International and Foreign Constitutional Law of the University
of Zurich. Mr Hold has given lectures at the South-Western University of
Finance and Economics in Chengdu and has completed internships, inter
alia, at the UN Headquarters in New York and at the Strategic Leadership
Training Section of the Swiss Federal Chancellery. Within the NCCR
Trade Regulation, Mr Hold pursues a PhD focusing on the relationship
between intellectual property rights, foreign direct investment and eco-
nomic development.

Rohan Kariyawasam
Cardif University
Rohan Kariyawasam is Professor of Law at Cardif University. Prior to
taking up this post, he was at the University of Essex and a member of the
Human Rights Centre and Director of their programme in Information
Technology, Media and E-Commerce Law. He has worked as a consultant
for both the media and communications departments at Cliford Chance,
the media law department at Field Fisher Waterhouse, and as an exter-
nal consultant to the United Kingdom’s Department for International
Development, Cable and Wireless and the Oice of Telecommunications
(now OFCOM). He qualiied as a solicitor with DentonWildeSapte.
Prior to law, Rohan trained as a telecommunications engineer with
Marconi Underwater Systems and worked in brand management with
 List of contributors xv

Unilever and McGraw-Hill. Rohan studied at Harvard Law School as a

Berkman Fellow, the University of Kent at Canterbury, the University of
Geneva, the College of Law in London and the Centre for Commercial
Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London. He is a past recipient
of a Fulbright Scholarship to Harvard. In 2011, he was awarded an MC
Fellowship by the British Academy to research net neutrality and privacy.
Rohan is the founding trustee of the Rahula Trust (http://www.rahula-
trust.org), which provides sponsorship to academically gited children
living in poverty in the developing world, and is a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Arts. His research involves the intersection of trade, technol-
ogy, IP and development. He has completed research looking at the role
of fair trade, ethical labels and the WTO for the United Kingdom’s Arts
and Humanities Research Council, to be published in he Processes and
Practices of Fair Trade: Trust, Ethics and Governance (edited by Janet
Dine and Brigitte Granville, forthcoming). Rohan is editor of Chinese
Intellectual Property and Technology Laws (2011) and Indian Intellectual
Property and Technology Laws (forthcoming).

Martin Labb é
International Trade Centre
Martin Labbé is an Adviser on Internet marketing and digital networks
at the International Trade Centre (ITC). He works on Information and
Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) related projects
and publications (see e.g. http://www.tradeinsounds.org). Prior to joining
ITC, Martin worked at the French Trade Commission as chief ICT analyst,
in London.

Pierre Larouche
Tilburg University
Pierre Larouche is Professor of Competition Law at Tilburg University
and Vice-Director of the Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC),
as well as Professor at the College of Europe (Bruges). Before starting his
academic career in 1996 at the University of Maastricht, he clerked at the
Supreme Court of Canada (1991–1992) and practised law for three years in
the EU law unit of Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot in Brussels. His teach-
ing and research interests include competition law, telecommunications
law, media law, basic EU law and the common European law of torts. He is
one of the chief editors of the Journal of Network Industries. He has been a
Guest Professor at McGill University (2002) and the National University
xvi List of contributors

of Singapore (2004). In 2009–2010, Larouche was a Searle Visiting Fellow

at Northwestern University.

David Luff
Appleton Luf
David Luf is an international trade lawyer, founding partner at the law
irm Appleton Luf with oices in Brussels, Geneva, São Paulo, Singapore,
Warsaw and Washington, DC. He has been practising international trade
law at both the EU and WTO levels for twenty years. He is in charge of
major trade remedies and competition cases and works on projects deal-
ing with technical barriers to trade, customs rules, WTO dispute settle-
ment, regional integration and market access actions. He has been advising
multinational companies and governments in the sectors of inancial, pos-
tal and telecommunications services; textiles and clothing; steel; chemicals
and sugar, bananas, dairy products, and fruits and vegetables. He advised
several governments on WTO implementation and trade negotiations
issues and held missions in more than thirty-ive developing countries.
He has also been advising several countries on cross-sectoral strategies
to take advantage of international trade rules and on the means to adjust
to the challenges posed by multilateral trade negotiations. He has also
advised the governments of two countries in their WTO accession. Luf
is also Professor of International Trade Law at the University of Liege and
at the College of Europe. He has published several articles in international
reviews on subjects related to WTO law and has held visiting appoint-
ments in India, China, Vietnam, Switzerland and Italy. He has trained trade
oicials of the EU, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan, West African countries, and China on WTO law and trade
policy. David Luf is the author of Le droit de l’Organisation mondiale du
commerce. Analyse critique (2004), which provides a comprehensive ana-
lysis of WTO law and jurisprudence.

John Palfrey
Harvard University
John Palfrey is Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean for
Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School. He is the co-
author of several books, including Born Digital: Understanding the First
Generation of Digital Natives (2008) and Access Denied: he Practice and
Politics of Internet Filtering (2008). His research and teaching focus on
Internet law, intellectual property and international law. He practised
 List of contributors xvii

intellectual property and corporate law at the law irm of Ropes and
Gray. He is a Faculty Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and
Society at Harvard University. He is also a Venture Executive at Highland
Capital Partners and serves on the board of several technology compan-
ies and non-proit organisations. Palfrey served as a special assistant at
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton adminis-
tration. He is a graduate of Harvard College, the University of Cambridge,
and Harvard Law School. He writes a blog at http://blogs.law.harvard.
edu/palfrey/.

Martin Roy
World Trade Organization
Martin Roy is Counsellor in the Trade in Services Division of the WTO
Secretariat. He has published on trade and political economy issues in
a number of journals and is the co-editor of the recent book Opening
Markets for Trade in Services: Countries and Sectors in WTO and Bilateral
Negotiations (2008). He holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins University’s
School of Advanced International Studies. Before joining the WTO
in 2002, he worked on trade negotiations and investment issues for the
Canadian Department of Finance.

Dominik Rü egger
ETH Zurich
Dominik Rüegger is pursuing a master’s degree in computer science at the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Since March 2010,
he has been working with Philipp Aerni on the use of Web technologies
for supporting entrepreneurship in Africa at the World Trade Institute in
Bern. He previously interned and worked with Web technologies in the
banking sector.

Antony Taubman
World Trade Organization
Antony Taubman is Director of the Intellectual Property Division of the
World Trade Organization, with responsibility for intellectual property,
competition and government procurement. From 2002 to 2009, he was
Director of the Global Intellectual Property Issues Division, including
both the Traditional Knowledge Division and Life Sciences Programme,
of the World Intellectual Property Organization, which covered a wide
xviii List of contributors

range of programmes on intellectual property and genetic resources, trad-

itional knowledge and folklore, the life sciences and related global issues
including the environment, climate change, human rights, food secur-
ity, bioethics and indigenous issues. Taubman conducted research and
taught international intellectual property law at the Australian Centre
for Intellectual Property in Agriculture and as a faculty member of the
Australian National University School of Law; he has also held several aca-
demic teaching appointments. From 1998 to 2001, he was Director of the
International Intellectual Property Section of the Australian Department
of Foreign Afairs and Trade and in that capacity was engaged in multi-
lateral and bilateral negotiations on intellectual property issues, domestic
policy development, regional cooperation, and TRIPS dispute settlement.
Before that, he worked as an Australian diplomat, dealing with disarma-
ment policy and serving in Geneva, Tehran and the Hague; earlier, he
practised as a patent and trademark attorney in Melbourne.

Christian Tietje
Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
Dr Christian Tietje is Professor (tenured) for European Law and
International Economic Law, Director of the Institute for Economic Law
and Director of the Transnational Economic Law Research Center (TELC)
at the Faculty of Law at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg,
Germany. His primary research interests lie in the areas of EU foreign
commercial policy law and international economic law (world trade law
and investment protection and arbitration). Tietje received his legal edu-
cation at the universities of Kiel, Paris V, and University of Michigan Law
School, Ann Arbor. He holds two German law degrees with distinction
from 1993–1998, was awarded the degree of Master of Laws with distinc-
tion in 1995 and received his Dr jur (PhD) with distinction in 1997 and his
Dr jur habil in 2000. He has published several books and more than 100
articles, mostly on international economic law. Moreover, he has advised
governments, international and non-governmental organisations, busi-
ness associations and multinational companies in the aforementioned
areas. He has been appointed legal expert in several investment arbitra-
tions; is leading a working group of the investment law committee of the
German branch of the International Law Association (ILA) dealing with
the relationship of international investment law and general public inter-
national law; and is a member of the ILA Study Group on the Role of Sot
Law Instruments in International Investment Law.
 List of contributors xix

Lee Tuthill
World Trade Organization
Lee Tuthill works in the Secretariat of the WTO on administration of the
General Agreement on Trade in Services. Her portfolio covers trade in tel-
ecommunications and computer services as well as services-related aspects
of electronic commerce and IT-enabled trade. She was Secretary to the
Group on Basic Telecommunications that negotiated on market opening
in the sector from 1994 to 1997. Following this, Ms Tuthill was Secretary
to the dispute settlement panel for the irst-ever GATS case: a dispute on
telecommunications between the United States and Mexico. She repre-
sents the WTO at relevant activities of the ITU, OECD, WSIS, and various
regional organisations. During her tenure at WTO, Ms Tuthill has worked
closely with many governments on ICT trade and regulatory issues.

Sacha Wunsch-Vincent
World Intellectual Property Organization
Sacha Wunsch-Vincent is Senior Economic Oicer with the Chief
Economist of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in
Geneva and a member of the MILE faculty of the World Trade Institute.
Before joining WIPO, he was an economist at the OECD Directorate for
Science, Technology, and Industry for seven years, most recently as co-
leader of the OECD’s Innovation Strategy. Before joining the OECD, he
was the Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow at the Berkeley Center
for Law and Technology (University of California, Berkeley) and at the
Peterson Institute for International Economics. He served as economist at
the UN International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO) and as adviser to
organisations such as the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and
the UN Information Communication Technology Task Force, mostly on
matters relating to innovation, information technology and international
trade (especially the GATS). He holds a master’s degree in international
economics from the University of Maastricht and a PhD in economics
from the University of St. Gallen. He teaches international economics at
Sciences Po Paris and the World Bank Institute.
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
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I CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 93 The proper names in the

Persian columns gave the first clue to the decipherment of the
Assyrian columns. The values thus obtained for some of the Assyrian
signs made it possible to read many of the words, their meanings
being determined by a comparison with the Persian columns. It was
then seen that Assyrian was a Semitic language and resembled
Hebrew in particular ; this was proved conclusively by De Saulcy in
1849. / In jJSj^ Rawlinson submitted a translation of the inscription
on the Black obelisk of Shalmaneser II to the Royal Asiatic Society, a
translation which was in the main correct, and in the following year
he published the text and translation of the Assyrian transcript on
the Behistun inscription, and announced two facts, onealready
known, namely that the Assyrian signs can be used ideographically,
i.e. to denote an object or idea, as well as to represent merely a
syllable, the other fact was that the characters were polyphonous,
i.e. could represent more than one syllable each : this was again
proved to demonstration by the redoubtable Hincks. Both facts alike
argued that the cursive Assyrian cuneiform had its origin in picture
writing, for in the latest times when cuneiform was as it were fully
stereotyped, the signs were still used alone singly to represent an
object or an idea, and also the polyphonous character of the
individual signs testified to the same origin, for example the picture
of an arm would signify not merely an " arm" but also "strength,"
"might," " grasp," etc., and thus though the sign would — at least
originally — only have one general idea attached to it, it would have
quite a number of phonetic values : these phonetic values would in
the first be inseparably connected with the root idea, but in time
when the sign had become cursive and developed and no longer
resembled the original picture, the various phonetic values of the
sign would not necessarily have anything whatever to do with the
original root idea.
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94 MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHEOLOGY For example, a

character with the meaning and phonetic value of the word " win"
would in later times come to represent the syllable " win " quite
apart from the basis meaning of the word win, thus the sign could
be used to represent the first syllable in the word win-ter. In 1857
the Royal Asiatic Society proposed to test the reliability of the
translations put forward by scholars of the Assyrian inscriptions in
the following manner : someeight hundred lines of cuneiform writing
contained on clay cylinders found by Layard at Kalat Sherkat, the
ancient Ashur, were to be independently translated by any scholars
who were prepared to accept the proposal ; the translations were to
be sent under seal to the society's secretary, and were to be opened
together and examined before a commission on a set day.
Rawlinson, Fox Talbot, Hincksand Oppert entered the lists, and on
May 25th their respective products were opened and compared. The
great similarity which they all displayed afforded conclusive proof as
to the correctness of the method of decipherment, and
demonstrated finally that the investigations carried on, together with
the results of those investigations, had not been mere speculative
guesses, but were based on sound scientific principles. Many other
scholars deserve our gratitude for the share they took in the
decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions, of whom one may
perhaps specially name Westergaarde, LOwenstern, De Saulcy and
Longperier, but for an account of the particular achievements of
each, the reader must refer to general works on the subject.1 1 Cf.
A. J. Booth, Trilingual Inscriptions; Rogers, History, pp. 175 ff.;
Sayce, Archa-ology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions, pp. 1-35; Harper,
Biblical World, XVI, pp. 294-7, 371-3 (a short and concise summary).
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CHAPTER IV— CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS A,L alphabets

and all modes of writing have their ultimate origin in pictures or
hieroglyphs, and the cuneiform script offers no exception to this
universal rule. When the early pictorial symbols are used to indicate
objects and ideas other than the particular object of which the sy-
mbol is a representation the accuracy or inaccuracy of the picture
becomes a matter of small importance, and an inevitable tendency
to sketch the picture in the most speedy manner possible ends
finally in the evolution of a purely cursive script. In
Mesopotamiathiscourseof development — or deterioration— was
hastened by the nature of the material used in later times for all
ordinary writing purposes, i.e. the all-abundant clay of the valley, it
being impossible to draw the lines and curves necessary for the
production of pictures on so plastic a substance as clay. The shape
assumed by the signs forming the characters was due to the same
cause, the point at which the stylus first comes in contact with the
soft clay being unavoidably thicker than the remainder of the stroke
which automatically tapers off into the form of a wedge. But so
forcible is the influence of habit and so strong the imitative
tendency, that we find the cuneiform characters which owed their
wedge-shaped formation entirely and solely to the adoption of clay
as a writing material, faithfully and slavishly copied on the colossal
stone bulls, stelae and wall-reliefs of later Assyrian kings. The early
decipherers of cuneiform had no specific knowledge of its
pictographic origin, for all the inscriptions at that time discovered
showed the same stereo95
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96 MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHEOLOGY typed and cursive script,

but since their day a vast number of archaic inscriptions have been
brought to light which prove conclusively that cuneiform as such was
no invention of either Semites or Sumerians, but was simply the last
stage in the process of degeneration to which the early picturesof
the pre-Semitic Sumerians were subject. In the following illustrations
(Figs. I and 2) we have a number of characters taken from actual
inscriptions and arranged in order of evolution so to speak,1 the sign
in the left-hand column containing the most archaic form of the sign
as yet discovered, the signs in the right-hand column showing the
gradual transition to cursive cuneiform, while the last sign in the
column is the ordinary late Assyrian ideograph. Thus in "A" we have
the crude picture of a man recumbent, and one can follow the
course of its development or deterioration from the various forms it
has assumed on monuments and bricks arranged in order of
sequence. Given the ordinary cuneiform sign for " man " by itself, it
would be quite impossible to conjecture that it originated in the
picture of a man at all. Below (" B") we have the old Sumerian
hieroglyph for " king," consisting in a man lying down, surmounted
by either a crown or an umbrella as part of the insignia of royalty. In
" C " we have the picture of a man's head in recumbent posture, the
lips being represented by two slanting lines, while the series of
characters in the centre illustrates the various forms the sign has
assumed on the bricks and monuments, and the arrangement shows
the process whereby the original hieroglyph gradually discarded all
trace of its pictorial origin, and became a cursive stereotyped sign
the principal value of which is "mouth." Below we have another rude
picture of a man's head, but on this occasion he wears a beard,
which would suggest a full-grown man ; hence the meaning of the i
For references to texts in which these signs occur, cf. G. A. Barton in
Harper's Old Testament and Semitic Studies, Vol. II, pp. 241 ff.
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CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 97 Assyrian ideograph is

"strength," "be strong," or "protection." In figure "E" there is a
representation of a A. B. e=> D. G. H. iv \ Vv i % ryr FIG. I.— From
Harper's Old Testament and Semitic Studies, Vol. II, pp. 241 ff. — By
permission. potted plant: this sign, instead of becoming simpler as it
makes each progressive step towards cuneiform, be 
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98 MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHEOLOGY comes paradoxically

more complex, until it finally subsides and assumes its normal
cursive form, the principal value for which is " cypress-tree." Below
(" F ") two plants are seen, growing likewise in a pot : the progress
is again obvious, the meanings of the ideogram being "plant" and
"garment"; this latter meaning is probably attached to the sign
through the use of flax as a material for clothing. " G" appears to be
a tree growing by water ; the late cuneiform sign has numerous
values, but none of them suggest any immediate connection with
the obvious signification of the picture-character from which it was
developed. " H " gives us a picture of a reed, the late cuneiform
character being the ideogram for " kanu " which means a "reed." In
Fig. 2, "Q" we have a picture of a fish ; the meaning of the Assyrian
ideogram derived from it are a " fish," to " peel " (from preparing a
fish for eating), the god Ea, on account of his sometimes being
represented in the form of a fish, and finally a " prince," and " great
" from its association with Ea. Below (" R ") is another fish, provided
with what appears to be a dorsal fin, hence the signification of the
Assyrian sign is " broad " or a " monster." Our next illustration ("I")
is concerned with water : we have here the wavy lines for water
which is similarly represented in both Egyptian and Chinese
hieroglyphics. Below (" J" ) we have a representation of the little
irrigation ditches by which gardens are watered : hence the
cuneiform ideogram derives the meaning of " field " and stands for
two distinct Assyrian words — "ginu" and "iklu," both of which mean
"field." It is somewhat doubtful what the hieroglyph in "K" is
intended to represent : Hommel regarded it as a picture of a
leathern bottle which would not unnaturally suggest the meaning "
desert "; Barton, on the other hand, with perhaps greater probability
regards it as a rude outline of the Euphrates valley, with its two
rivers and
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CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 99 its " occasional sections of

irrigated and so fertile land," indicated by the cross-lines, and he
rightly says that 4 Q7?. /nrv K L. HBT •=01 N. FIG. 2.— From
Harper's (9/i/ Testament and Semitic Studies, Vol. II, pp. 241 ff. —
By permission. this would account for the meanings " plain " and "
lands," and by an extension " desert," " elevated country," and last
of all " back." In "L" we see the
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ioo MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHEOLOGY picture of a house,

which however hardly corresponds with our conception of what a
house should be : the cuneiform sign derived from it is the ideogram
for " bitu " (the Hebrew " Beth " occurring in the proper names
Bethlehem, " house of bread," Bethshemesh, " house of the sun,"
etc.), the ordinary Assyrian word for "house." The next figure (" M ")
shows us a covered and steaming pot ; hence the meanings of the
later cuneiform sign are to "burst forth," "exult," "rejoice." "N" is
somewhat doubtful, but it probably represents a " priestly garment,"
inasmuch as the cuneiform sign derived from it is the Assyrian
ideogram for " sangu " a " priest." " O " is apparently a rude picture
of either a crown or a ceremonial umbrella, as the emblem of
greatness, the picture of the Assyrian king attended by a slave
whose office it is to hold an umbrella over the head of his royal
master being, through its frequent occurrence on the basreliefs
which adorned the walls of the palaces, sufficiently familiar. However
that may be, the cuneiform sign is the ordinary ideogram for "rabu"
(the root which occurs in Rabshakeh, Rabsaris, etc.), which means
"great" ; we have already seen this sign compounded with the
picture of a man, the two together meaning " king." In " P " we see
a picture of a bowl in which two tinder-sticks have been inserted
with a view to their ignition by friction ; hence is derived the
meaning of the cuneiform sign developed from it, — " fire." As has
been already indicated, clay was the material mostly used by the
Assyrian and Babylonian scribes for the purposes of writing ; but
stone was also extensively used from the earliest to the latest times.
Stone obelisks, colossal statues of bulls and lions, and last but far
from least the bas-reliefs which decora ted the walls of the royal
palaces were generally covered with an inscription, the wedges
sometimes measuring as much as two inches. In writing on
sculpture the carved figures were com 
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CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 101 pletely ignored, the

inscription being chiselled regardlessly through every detail of the
carving. Stone was however sometimes used solely and exclusively
as the material medium for perpetuating a legal agreement, or
immortalizing the work of some self-satisfied grandee, and tablets of
limestone or alabaster exist in large numbers, good examples of
which are those of Rim-Sin and Sin-Gamil, rulers of the ancient city
of Larsa. Boundary-stones or land-marks form another interesting
class of inscribed stone objects. The texts refer to land-tenure and
property conveyancing, while the upper part of most of
theseboulder-shaped monuments issculptured in relief with
mythological emblems. They belong almost exclusively to the Kassite
period. Sometimes a plan of the field seems to have been chiselled
on the stone which marked its boundary. A good example of such a
boundary-stone is that of Nebuchadnezzar I, which was discovered
at Nippur and is published by W. J. Hinke j1 a further point of
interest about this stone is that it is inscribed with a hymn to Enlil,
the god of Nippur. But neither the Babylonians nor the Assyrians
confined themselves exclusively to the use of clay and calcareous
stone as the material whereon to write their inscriptions. Sometimes
the hardest volcanic rocks were employed for the purpose, doubtless
in consideration of their durabilityand power of resisting the
devastating influences of time and climate. Thus in the course of the
German excavations at Babylon a plate of dolerite measuring about
a foot and a half square and bearing an inscription of Adad-nirari the
son of Ashur-dan was discovered. So too Dungi and Bur-Sin, kings of
Ur (circ. 2350 B.C.), have left us inscriptions chiselled on hard
diorite, the inscriptions themselves being of a votive 1 Cf. Babylonian
Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania IP, Series D, for this
Babylonian boundary-stone and for a full discussion of the subject
generally.
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102 MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHEOLOGY character, while a club-

button made of the same material and bearing an inscription of ten
lines was found at Babylon. The various statues and stelae made of
these hard igneous stones and found both in Assyria and Babylonia,
though more frequently in the mother country, practically always
bear an inscription. A good example of an Assyrian inscription on
basalt is that found on the basalt statue of Shalmaneser II (860-825
B.C.), which was brought to light in the course of the recent
excavations conducted by the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft at Ashur.
Again the numerous stone gate-sockets discovered in the ruins of
early buildings in Babylonia are nearly all inscribed with the name
and titles of the person who erected the building, and sometimes the
original inscription has been erased or obliterated to make room for
the inscription of a later ruler, who knowing full well the difficulty of
procuring stone in the low- lying country of Babylonia, was not so
short-sighted as to cast away the gate-sockets of his vanquished
predecessor, but on the contrary utilized them for his own new
building. Thus for example the gate-socket of Lugal-kigub-nidudu,
an early king of Sumer, was subsequently used by Shar-Gani-sharri,
king of Akkad, in the construction of his temple at Nippur. But
sometimes stones of comparative rarity, such as lapis lazuli, were
employed as a material whereon to engrave inscriptions : thus a
tablet made of that material and dedicated by Lugal-tarsi, an early
king of Kish, to the god Anu and the goddess Ninni, is preserved in
the British Museum, and in the course of the recent excavations at
Babylon two bars of lapis lazuli with reliefs and both bearing
cuneiform inscriptions were discovered. One of these showed the
picture of a god standing up, surmounted with a feather crown, and
holding the symbol of lightning in each hand, while his dress is
decorated with three shields, and a cuneiform inscription of five lines
is further added;
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CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 103 on the other, a god in

similar posture and dress but holding a staff and ring on his breast
and grasping the tail of a double-horned dragon in his right hand is
portrayed : the god's girdle is decorated with figures, while on one
of the three shields adorning the raiment, horses are depicted, and
there is an accompanying inscription of eight lines. Metal in like
manner was not exempt from being drawn into the service, the
metals mostly employed being bronze and copper. Thus the female
statuettes from Tello all bear an inscription, Elamite or Babylonian as
the case may be, the general purport of which is that the statuette is
dedicated with a view to the preservation of the life of the donor : so
too the colossal copper lance-head discovered on the same site
bears a royal inscription, while the famous bronze gate-sheaths from
Balawat belonging to the time of Shalmaneser II, are perhaps the
most familiar instance of cuneiform inscriptions engraved on bronze.
Many bronze tablets of the Assyrian period have been found, and
the wellknown bronze doorstep of Nebuchadnezzar II provides us
with another excellent example of an inscription engraved on metal.
Moreover the more precious metals such as silver and gold were
occasionally inscribed. Inscriptions on gold are very rare, but by no
means unknown. M. de Sarzec for example found a plate of gold
bearing a cuneiform inscription at Tello, and a strip of gold bearing
the name of the illustrious NaramSin of Agade was brought to light
in the course of the American excavations at Bismaya. But the
inscribed clay tablets, countless in number and infinitely various in
size, shape and contents, far outweigh in importance all other kinds
of cuneiform inscriptions in existence. A detailed treatment of the
latter would far exceed the necessarylimitsofthislittle volume, but a
few words may be said regarding the main classes of tablets
discovered. Their size and shape are some 
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io4 MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHAEOLOGY times indicative of the

period to which they belong, sometimes of the subject-matter with
which they deal. A very early type is represented by those found
below the level of Ur-Nina's building at Tello; the tablets in question
which have not been baked in an oven, and are round in form, deal
with the sale and purchase of land. Similar round tablets were found
by the German excavators at Fara, which were however baked and
not sun-dried. The same rounded baked clay tablets were evidently
in vogue at the time of Bur-Sin, for several have been brought to
light which are dated in his reign, and contain details regarding
certain landed property. But the commonest type of clay tablet is
that characterized by its rectangular shape, sometimes square, but
more frequently oblong, and varying greatly in size. The tablets in
the Kouyunj ik collection, which represents the largest, and in one
sense the only Assyrian library as yet discovered, vary from one to
fifteen inches in length when complete, many of them being made
from the very finest clay. The writing is sometimes exceedingly
minute, though marvellously clear and sharp, and is more or less
stereotyped in character. Astrology, astronomy, history, mythology,
magic, medicine, mathematics, prayers, hymns, lists of gods, omens,
lexicography and grammar are all well represented in this famous
library. Many of the texts are copies of older Babylonian literature
made by Ashur-bani-pal's scribes, and stored away in the royal
archives. Some of the texts are bilingual, the top line containing the
Sumerian ideographic version, and the lower line giving the Assyrian
translation, and these bilingual inscriptions together with the
syllabaries have enabled scholars to unravel and elucidate at all
events to some extent the old Sumerian language. By the year 1873
all scholars were agreed that the cuneiform script was not invented
by the Semitic Babylonians, but by a people who spoke an
agglutinative as opposed to an inflexional language, a language
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CUNEIFORM INSC'KirrioNS 105 which was therefore, at

least in this respect, akin to the Tartar languages. In the following
year however Joseph Halevy, the famous French Semitist, started a
theory which denied the existence of a Sumerian language
altogether, and explained the ideographic texts in the bilingual
inscriptions already alluded to, as a secret writing intelligible only to
the priests ; but prima facie the theory lacked probability and even
plausibility. Halevy, it is true, propounded his theory at a time when
the study of Sumerian was in its infancy, though it can hardly be said
to have grown out of its childhood even at the present day, but this
notwithstanding, it would be indeed singular if the priests took the
precaution to enshrine their secret lore in cryptic language, and then
frustrated themselves by subscribing an Assyrian translation.
Moreover many of the Sumerian inscriptions treat of such very
ordinary matters, that it is extremely difficult to see how it could
have been necessary to employ a cryptic language to conceal them.
A more ready explanation is to be found in the theory accepted by
the majority of scholars to-day, — that the Sumerian language
existed side by side with Semitic Babylonian, and was used much as
Latin is to-day. One class of tablet especially easily distinguishable by
its shape and size is that comprising legal contracts for the exchange
of land, cattle and property of every description. They are small in
size, oblong in shape, both sides being slightly concave, and the
whole not unlike a small narrow pillow in general appearance. Many
of these contract tablets were enclosed in clay envelopes to ensure
their preservation. When a contract was effected by the Babylonians,
the contracting parties had recourse to a legal or priestly official, and
the terms of the agreement were set forth on a clay tablet which
was deposited either in the temple or the record chamber : it was
furthermore protected by a clay envelope upon which
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io6 MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHEOLOGY the terms inscribed on

the contract tablet were copied in duplicate ; thus every precaution
was taken to secure the preservation of the original document.
Sometimes the text on the envelope varies somewhat from that
contained in the document itself, and in such cases the envelopes
therefore have more than a purely archaic interest, and are of actual
linguistic value. One or two copies were made of the contract and
were kept by either or both of the contracting parties. The deed was
subscribed by the witnesses, one of whom was the scribe who drew
up the document and sealed it. The seal was generally affixed by
rolling a small cylinder seal over the tablet while still moist, though
sometimes a three-sided clay cone received the impress of the seal,
and this cone was attached to the tablet by means of a reed inserted
in the apex of the cone, the other end of the reed being joined to
the tablet by a piece of moist clay. Many of these contract " case "
tablets belong to the times of Khammurabi, the most celebrated king
of the First Dynasty of Babylon (circ. 1900 B.C.). Some of the
envelopes of these tablets bear the impression of a cylinder-seal, a
good example of which is found on a tablet recording the sale of a
piece of land by Sin-eribam and his brother to Sin-ikisham (Brit. Mus.
No. 92649). The clay of this class of tablet is generally somewhat
dark in colour, and the characters are often difficult to read. The
later, or Neo-Babylonian legal and commercial documents show
greater variation in size and shape than those belonging to the time
of the First Dynasty of Babylon. They are generally oblong, but on
the smaller tablets the text is generally written in such a manner
that each line extends over the length of the tablet instead of over
its breadth. The larger legal documents of this period are sometimes
inscribed on tablets of quite exceptional thickness, their general size
and shape being not unlike that of an old Latin prayer-book.
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PLATE IX Till-: KTINKD Mol'Mi.S OK Xll'ITk COURT OF THE

MEN FROM THE NORTH-EAST: NIPPUR (Both from C. -V. Fisher's "
E.ica-'ntii»ti at Xifipur," by permission)
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CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 107 But contracts were not the

only kind of inscription protected by a clay envelope or " case " ;
letters and despatches sometimes shared the same consideration.
Like contracts, letters were inscribed on small oblong tablets, such
as might be easily transmitted through the Babylonian and Assyrian
post, that is to say carried by the messenger whose duty it was to
convey the letter to its destination. As might be expected, the
envelope in this case bore the name of the person to whom the
letter was addressed, and occasionally also that of the sender, just
as the envelopes of letters are sometimes initialled to-day. Many of
these letters are of a royal character, and emanate from kings and
princes. Quite a number of letters and despatches from the early
kings of Babylon to their officials and governors have come down to
us. They treat of divers subjects : in one Khammurabi writes to Sin-
Idinnam commanding him to send forty-seven shepherds to Babylon
in order that they may give an account to the king of the flocks
under their care (Brit. Mus. No. 23122). In another letter the king
writes to the same prince with instructions to arrest three officials
and despatch them to Babylon, while in yet another Khammurabi
writes to SinIdinnam with orders to restore a certain baker to his
former position. Some of Sin-Idinnam's official correspondence has
also been preserved. In one communication he directs a legal officer
to summon a certain man to appear in court (Brit. Mus. No. 12868).
SinIdinnam's duties were clearly very varied and must have been
sufficiently arduous. In one of these despatches Khammurabi orders
Sin-Idinnam to cut down some "Abba" trees required by smelters of
metal (Brit. Mus. No. 26234). In another he commands the same
personage to see to the mustering of crews for transportbarges
(Brit. Mus. No. 27288). Others contain instructions to attend to the
repair of the banks of the Euphrates at various points. But his duties
were not
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io8 MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHEOLOGY exclusively civil ; judicial

affairs fell to his charge also ; thus it is that to him the king writes
regarding a dispute between a landlord and his tenant concerning
the payment of rent for land, while he is perpetually receiving orders
to arrest delinquent officials and other misconducted persons. In one
letter (Brit. Mus. No. 12827) Khammurabi directs Sin-Idinnam to
postpone the date of a certain trial, owing to the presence of the
plaintiff, one Ili-Ippalzam, in the city of Ur at a certain festival.
Elsewhere (Brit. Mus. No. 12841) Khammurabi issues a report to the
same overburdened official to the effect that certain persons have
cancelled a deed of mortgage, and commands the instant presence
of EnubiMarduk, who received their lands on mortgage, in Babylon.
Many of the letters of these early kings of Babylon embody the royal
wishes regarding the date of sheep-shearing, or the reaping of corn,
as well as instructions concerning the irrigation canals. In one letter,
Samsu-iluna (Brit. Mus. No. 27269) instructs Sin-Idinnam and the
judges of Sippar to prohibit certain fishermen from fishing in
forbidden waters ; at other times the same judges are directed to
send a particular case for trial in the capital (cf. Brit. Mus. No.
27266). Another collection of letters written in cuneiform and on clay
tablets are the famous Tell el-Amarna Letters, — generally of
somewhat larger size and less distinctly oblong than the ordinary
Babylonian despatches. Themajorityof themarerectangular, though a
few are oval. Some are convex on both sides, some are flat on both
sides, while others are plano-convex or pillow-shaped. These tablets
were discovered at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt ; they represent nearly all
that remains of theofficial and diplomaticcorrespondence which
passed between the Pharaohs Amenhetep III and Amenhetep IV of
the Eighteenth Dynasty (i.e. they belong to the fourteenth or
fifteenth century B.C.), and their
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EIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 109 various officials and vassals in

Palestine. Some of the tablets found at Tell el-Amarna are inscribed
with letters from the King of Babylon, from the King of Mitani, from
the King of Alashiya, and other royal potentates, but as they are
mostly of Palestinian and Egyptian interest, a detailed consideration
of them would be out of place in this volume. Among the larger
rectangular clay tablets in existence are those containing syllabaries.
Owing to the deterioration and simplification which the cuneiform
characters underwent in the course of ages, the Assyrian scribes
found it necessary to make lists of the early Babylonian characters
adding what they believed to be the later Assyrian equivalents. Most
of these syllabaries consist of three columns ; in the middle column
the Assyrian sign to be explained is given, on the left the Sumerian
value of the same, and in the right-hand column either the Assyrian
name for the sign, or else the Assyrian meaning, and occasionally
both. These syllabaries are obviously of immense importance in the
reconstruction of the old Sumerian language. Other tablets of
abnormally large size are those dealing with astrology, magic and
medicine : the two latter subjects are inextricably confused owing to
the fact that they went hand in hand with each other ; the medicine
was prescribed and administered,but the medicine alone was by no
means sufficient to cure the patient, that could only be effected by
the potent spell of the magician. But the largest clay tablets
emanate from Babylonia and contain lists of accounts mostly
concerning grain, cattle, assesjlambs, sheep. Some of these tablets
are perfectly square, and measure as much as a foot each way,
while nearly all of them are more square than oblong: the clay of
which they are made is of fine quality, and the Babylonian characters
with which they are inscribed are singularly clear. Most of them may
be assigned to the second half of the third millennium B.C., and
many
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no MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHEOLOGY of them are specifically

dated in the reign of Dungi, king of Ur about 2500 B.C. But as
already mentioned, tablets were not always rectangular ; sometimes
they assumed a circular form. Tablets of this kind are usually
inscribed in the Sumerian language, and contain lists of landed
estates and fields, with information regarding their size, their
capacity for producing crops and other details. Many of these circular
tablets are dated, the year deriving its name after some noteworthy
event, as was the regular mode of dating in the early days of
Babylonian civilization. Thus many of these lists are dated " in the
year after that in which the land of Khukhnuri was laid waste," and
were drawn up in the reign of BurSin and other kings of Ur, i.e.
during the second half of the third millennium B.C. The clay of which
these tablets are made is of the finest, while the writing is
exceedingly clear ; they vary from about two to six inches in
diameter, and are oval on one side and more or less flat on the
other. Other large rectangular tablets are inscribed with lists of the
principal events in different kings' reigns and are obviouslyof
immense importance for the reconstruction of Babylonian and
Assyrian history. One of the tablets belonging to this class (Brit. Mus.
No. 92702) gives us a list of the chief events, after which the various
years of Sumu-abu, Sumu-la-ilu, Zabum, Apil-Sin, Sinmuballit,
Khammurabi and Samsu-iluna, kings of the first dynasty of Babylon
(about the end of the third and beginning of the second millennium
B.C.) were named. Another of the same class (Brit. Mus. No. 92502)
gives us a list of the leading events which took place in Babylonia
and Assyria from the third year of Nabonassar, king of Babylon 744
B.C., and the first year of Shamashshum-ukln, the contemporary of
Ashur-bani-pal (668 B.C.). One of the most interesting events here
alluded to is the assassination of Sennacherib by his son on the 2oth
day of the month Tebet, and in the 23rd year of
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. CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS in his reign. Among other

historical documents of primary importance, a tablet generally
known as "the Synchronous History" must be placed in the first rank.
Thisdocument is an agreement drawn up about the time of Ashur-
bani-pal, and it had as its object the settlement of boundary-
disputes between Babylonia and Assyria, while its historical value lies
largely in the short notices of the various conflicts and alliances
between the two countries from about 1600-800 B.C. One other
large rectangular tablet (K. 3751) of exceptional interest alike to the
historian and the Biblical student, is the document in which Tiglath-
Pileser III, king of Assyria 745-727 B.C., gives us an account of his
building operations and conquests, and mentions " Ahaz, King of
Judah " as one of his tributary princes. This tablet must have been
very large when complete, for what remains of it measures nine
inches by seven and a half. The largest tablet in the Kouyunjik
collection is not however historical in character, but contains a list of
the names and titles of various gods, and in its present fragmentary
state measures fifteen inches in length. Other cuneiform inscriptions
were written on pieces of clay shaped like cones. Most of these
terra-cotta cones date from the time of the dynasty of Ur, i.e. the
latter half of the third millennium B.C. Two good examples of this
kind of cuneiform inscription bear the name of Sin-gashid, king of
Erech, and record the dedication of a temple to the god Lugal-banda
and the goddess Ninsun, and give the price of wool, grain, oil and
copper during the reign of Sin-gashid (Brit. Mus. 91, 150). Another
baked clay cone is inscribed with the name of Sin-idinnam, king of
Larsa about 2300 B.C., and likewise records the dedication of a
temple — in this case that of the Sun-god, Larsa being one of the
principal centres of the worship of the Sun-god. But the conquering
Elamites, who imitated their subjugated enemies, the Babylonians, in
so many ways, also adopted the
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ii2 MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHEOLOGY practice of writing

cuneiform inscriptions on clay cones ; for an example of an Elamite
cone we may compare Brit. Mus. 91, 149, which bears the name of
KudurMabug. But the habit of writing inscriptions on clay cones did
not cease at this period, at least not permanently, for a similar cone
exists bearing the name of the Neo-Babylonian king Nabopolassar
(625-604 B.C.), and like the older cones recording the dedication of
a temple, this time the temple of Marduk at Babylon. (Brit. Mus. No.
91,090.) But Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions on clay were not
always in the form of rectangular or circular tablets ; frequently they
assumed the form of large hexagonal, octagonal, or decagonal
prisms, or in the case of Babylonia of barrel-shaped cylinders. It was
customary to place these large clay memorials in the four corners of
the foundation of a building in Babylonia and Assyria, a good
example of which practice was found at Mukeyyer (Ur) : the
cylinders from Ur had been deposited at the four angles of the
foundation of the temple of Sin, the Moon-god, by Nabonidus, and
they record the rebuilding of the temple by Nabonidus (555-538
B.C.) on the site of the ancient temple erected by Ur-Engur and his
son Dungi, about 2400 B.C. The text finds a fitting conclusion in a
prayer to the god whose fane he is restoring, on behalf of his eldest
son Bal-shar-usur, the Biblical Belshazzar. Three octagonal prisms of
baked clay give us an account of the campaigns and building
operations of Tiglath-Pileser I, king of Assyria about 1 100 B.C. (Brit.
Mus. 91033-91035). Another prism is inscribed with an account of
the expeditions of Sargon, king of Assyria 721-705 B.C. (Brit. Mus.
No. 22505), while the fragments of an octagonal prism of the same
king,andalso preserved intheBritish Museum, (K.i 668, etc.) are of
peculiar interest in that they give Sargon's own account of his
campaign against the Philistine city of Ashdod, which is referred to in
Isaiah xx. i. Judah is
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CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 113 icntioned as one of the

allies of Ashdod,but the Assyriis were ultimately successful in
reducing the rebellious ity. Sargon's successor, Sennacherib (705-681
B.C.), ;imilarlycaused his militaryachievements to berecorded >n
large clay prisms, and the most interesting document >f his reign is
preserved on the six sides of a hexagonal prism now in the British
Museum (91032). It records the defeat of Merodach-Baladan, king of
Babylon, and the subjugation of various other peoples, but the
particular interest attaching to this cylinder lies in the allusions to the
Palestinian campaign of 2 Kings xviii. Sennacherib states that he
severely punished the rebellious people of Ekron and restored the
banished Padi to his throne ; he then proceeded to attack Hezekiah
in Jerusalem " his royal city " ; he laid siege to Jerusalem, and shut
Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage, but in spite of this demonstration,
he was clearly unable to open the cage and seize the bird. However,
Hezekiah seems to have been duly impressed, and he hastened to
buy oft Sennacherib with gifts and tribute — " thirty talents of gold,
eight hundred talents of silver, precious stones,eye paint . . . ivory
couches and thrones, hides and tusks, precious woods and divers
objects," together with his daughters, his women - folk and male
and female musicians — apparently being the price. Another
interesting octagonal prism of this same king has been recently
acquired by the British Museum (No. 103,000). It contains
information regarding two campaigns not recorded elsewhere. The
first of these, which took place in 698 B.C., was undertaken to
suppress a revolt in Cilicia ; the campaign was completely successful
and the Assyrian power was entirely restored in those regions. It is
interesting to note that the city of Tarsus was one of those which
Sennacherib sacked on this occasion. The second campaign took
place three years later in 695 B.C., and resulted in the siege and
capture of a certain city called Til-Garimum in the land of Tubal,
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ii4 MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHEOLOGY which lay to the north-

east of Cilicia. We are also furnished with an account of the
rebuilding and fortification of Nineveh by Sennacherib, which
contains valuable information regarding the inner and outer wall of
the city, and the positions and names of the fifteen gates. It is dated
in the eponymy1 of Ilu-Ittia, the Assyrian governor of Damascus.
This cylinder was apparently buried as a foundation memorial in the
structure of one of the city gates referred to in the text. Esarhaddon,
Sennacherib's son and successor, haslikewise left us a number of
hexagonal prisms of historic importance. One of the principal events
narrated on Esarhaddon's cylinders is the siege and capture of Sidon
and the subjugation of the surrounding country. Ashurbani-pal,
Esarhaddon's famous son and successor, has left us a number of
cylinders and prisms, but by far the most important is that upon
which an account of the principal events of the early part of his reign
is inscribed (Brit. Mus., No. 91,026). We have here a record of his
first and second Egyptian campaigns, of the defeat he inflicted upon
Tirhakah, the Ethiopian king of Egypt, and the sack of Thebes, the
capital of the country. The capture of Tyre is also narrated and the
campaign against Te-Umman, king of Elam, whom Ashur-bani-pal
slew and whose severed head is seen hanging from a tree in the
bas-relief in which Ashur-bani-pal and his wife are reclining at meat
in their garden. There is also an account of the siege and capture of
Babylon, whose king Shamash-shum-ukm had thrown off the
suzerainty of Assyria ; the conquest of Arabia is recorded as well as
the final triumph of the Assyrian arms over Elam, and the text
concludes with an account of Ashur-bani-pal's building operations. 1
An eponym was an official of high rank — sometimes the king
himself— who held office for a year, and whose name was used to
date all documents drawn up in that year. He corresponded to the
Roman consul and the Athenian archon.
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CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS 115 We have already alluded

to a clay cylinder belonging to the Neo-Blbylonian king Nabunidus,
while another cylinder of the same king, which has been discussed
elsewhere (cf. p. 7), is equally notable, as a complete system of
chronology has been based upon its contents. Nebuchadnezzar II,
king of Babylon 604-561 B.C., and belonging to the same dynasty
has likewise left us a number of barrel-shaped cylinders, the
inscriptions upon which are chiefly concerned with a recital of his
building achievements, while to the cylinder of Cyrus the Persian
conqueror of Babylonia (538 B.C.) reference has been made
elsewhere (cf. p. 74). But the practice of writing cuneiform
inscriptions on baked clay cylinders did not even come to an end
with the Persian kings of Babylonia, for we have a cylinder (Brit.
Mus. 36277) bearing an inscription in archaic Babylonian characters,
of Antiochus Soter, king of Babylonia about 280 B.C. ; it records the
restoration of the temples E-Sagil, and E-zida in Babylon and
Borsippa in the year 270 B.C., and concludes with a prayer to the
god Nebo on behalf of Antiochus, his son Seleucus and his wife. But
besides rectangular, round, barrel-shaped, cylindrical and cone-
shaped clay inscriptions, yet other varieties exist. Among these a
four-sided block of clay forming an elongated kind of cube, the
height of which is 9} inches and the breadth of each of its four sides
3^ inches (Brit. Mus. No. 92611), deserves a mention ; its date is
about 2100 B.C., and it is inscribed with lists of the names offish,
birds, plants, stones and garments. Another unique object is a clay
model of an ox-hoof (Brit. Mus. No. R. 620), inscribed with forecasts.
A somewhat similar object is found in a clay model of a sheep's liver,
also preserved in the British M useum (No. 92,668); the inscription
which it bears is magical in character, and the object was probably
used for divination purposes. Other tablets, though not being
moulded in the form of a sheep's liver, bear the incised outlines of
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