ABSTRACT
All legally incorporated enterprises have official books of
record. Whether in manual or automated form, these are
the records governmental authorities turn to when deter-
mining the status of an enterprise. The ability to enforce a
subpoena or court order for these records reflects the effec-
tive sovereignty of the nation in which the enterprise oper-
ates. Most countries require enterprises incorporated,
created, or registered in their jurisdiction to maintain offi-
cial books of record physically within their borders. For
example, a company relying on a service bureau in another
country for information processing services may cause the
official records to exist only in that other country. This
could occur if the printouts or downloads to management
PCs reflect only an historic position of the company, perhaps
month-end conditions, where the current position of the
company-the position on which management relies-
exists only through online access to the company’s execu-
tive information system. From a nation’s perspective, two
issues of sovereignty arise:
1. That other country might exercise its rights and take
custody of the company’s records-possibly forcing
it out of business-for actions alleged against the
company that the company’s “home” nation consid-
ers legal.
