[Ecommerce] Issues on the UNCITRAL e-contract convention

[James Love]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Random-bits] Issues on the UNCITRAL e-contract convention
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 11:21:12 -0500
From: James Love <james.love@cptech.org>
To: random-bits@lists.essential.org

UNCITRAL is a UN agency that deals with legal issues.  It is proposing a
treaty on E-Commerce contracts.  An ABA document on the issues in the
e-contract convention is here:

http://www.cptech.org/ecom/uncitral/UNCITRALissuespaperABAMarch03.doc

Among other things, the UNCITRAL treaty will seek to address such things
as when a click on contract is considered valid.

 From the ABA paper:

*  "In some countries, conventions rank higher than laws, so even a
country that has adopted MLEC in legislation may be subject to
conventions that do not recognize e-commerce.
*  "In some countries, it is easier to adopt a convention than a
national law, so having the convention available may encourage wider
adoption of the general rules.
*  "The convention could contribute to the legislative "arsenal" of
means of increasing legal certainty or commercial predictability in
electronic business transactions - alongside the MLEC and other instruments.
*  Especially if the convention goes beyond mere formation of
e-contracts, it may influence the reading of the texts of other conventions.

*  "It has been suggested that the convention not apply to "virtual
goods" or digital goods.  (See WP.91 para 20 - 29.) It may be that the
exclusion should focus on transactions involving intellectual property
(IP).  The current draft of Article 2(b) excludes "contracts granting
limited use of intellectual property rights." There is no clear
definition of what these may be or what their exclusion would involve.
The next meeting of the Working Group will discuss these issues for a
limited time - perhaps one day - with some expert presentations.


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [eglobal-list] Issues on the UNCITRAL e-contract convention
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 10:32:34 -0500
From: Gregory, John D. (JUS) <John.D.Gregory@jus.gov.on.ca>
To: 'bl-cyber-globalecom@mail.abanet.org'	

Here is a revised edition of the compilation of issues about the
proposed UNCITRAL convention on electronic contracts.  It is about 90+%
the same as the one circulated three weeks ago - improvements come
slowly at this stage
...

Now over to you: what should UNCITRAL be doing on all these issues?

Those of you connected with the ABA - all of one list, many of the other -
may want to help the ABA to make official comments to the US government,
or to UNCITRAL directly.  Those of you not so connected may want a voice
in the discussion somewhere anyway - since delegates from a number of
countries read at least the eglobal-list.

SO - please let us know your views.  What should we say in the boxes
marked "Recommendations" and what Comments should follow them?

For ABA purposes - it would be most useful to have comments by March 31,
three weeks today, so that the remarks may be collated and presented to
the meeting of the Global E-Com Policy subcommittee of the Cyberlaw
committee at the Spring Meeting in Los Angeles at the end of that week.
  The subcommittee will try to come up with a set of recommendations and
decide how best to express it - possibly looking for blanket authority
to speak for the ABA, possibly some less ambitious expression.

For UNCITRAL purposes - the next meeting of the working group is in the
first week of May.  Comments before that time would be more useful than
after...   There will be a new draft of the proposed convention,
probably in April, that may present some new issues, but most of those
in the current compilation are likely to endure.

Comments to the list would be most useful, as they may stimulate
discussion and thus enlightenment.  Those of you who would rather not
opine or speculate in public can get in touch with me directly, ideally
with a copy to Hal Burman, co-chair of the ABA subcommittee, at
halburman@aol.com, and to Bill Luddy, guardian of the eglobal-list, at
wjl@rh.edu.


John G


  <<UNCITRAL issues paper ABA March 03.doc>>

John D. Gregory
General Counsel, Policy Branch
Ministry of the Attorney General (Ontario)
720 Bay Street
Toronto ON Canada M5G 2K1
(416) 326-2503   fax (416) 326-2699
john.d.gregory@jus.gov.on.ca
..................................................................
OPINIONS ARE PERSONAL NOT OFFICIAL
.....................................................................


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-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:james.love@cptech.org
tel. +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040