[Ecommerce] Convention on use of electronic communications in international contracting

[Manon Ress]

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/ga10424.doc.htm


GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS NEW CONVENTION ON USE OF ELECTRONIC

COMMUNICATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL CONTRACTING

NEW YORK, 23 November (UNCITRAL) -- The United Nations General
Assembly adopted today a new Convention on the Use of Electronic
Communications in International Contracting.  The Convention is
intended to remove obstacles to the use of electronic communications
in international contracting, including obstacles that might arise
under existing international trade law instruments, most of which
were negotiated long before the development of new technology such as
e-mail, electronic data interchange and the Internet.

The new Convention was prepared by United Nations Commission on
International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group on Electronic
Commerce over a number of sessions commencing in 2002 and completing
its work in October 2004.  It was adopted by the UNCITRAL at its
thirty-eighth Session, held in Vienna, Austria, in July 2005.  The
Convention complements and builds upon earlier instruments prepared
by the UNCITRAL, including the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic
Commerce and the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures.

Aimed at enhancing legal certainty and commercial predictability
where electronic communications are used in relation to international
contracts, the provisions of the convention deal with, among other
things, determining a party=92s location in an electronic environment;
the time and place of dispatch and receipt of electronic
communications; and the use of automated message systems for contract
formation.  Other provisions contain criteria establishing functional
equivalence between electronic communications and paper documents -=96
including =93original=94 paper documents -=96 as well as between electronic
authentication methods and hand-written signatures.  The new
Convention will assure companies and traders around the world that
contracts negotiated electronically are as valid and enforceable as
traditional paper-based transactions.

This Convention will be open for signature by all States at United
Nations Headquarters in New York from 16 January 2006 to 16 January
2008.  It is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval by the
signatory States, and open for accession by all States that are not
signatory States.  The Convention will enter into force on the first
day of the month following the expiration of six months after the
date of deposit of the third instrument of ratification, acceptance,
approval or accession.  It is expected that a signature event would
take place during the UNCITRAL=92s thirty-ninth session, to be held in
New York from 19 June to 7 July 2006, to promote participation in the
Convention by States and awareness of its provisions.

The UNCITRAL is the core legal body of the United Nations system in
the field of international trade law.  Its mandate is to remove legal
obstacles to international trade by progressively modernizing and
harmonizing trade law.  It prepares legal texts in a number of key
areas such as international commercial dispute settlement, electronic
commerce, insolvency, international payments, sale of goods,
transport law, procurement and infrastructure development.  The
UNCITRAL also provides technical assistance to law reform activities,
including assisting Member States to review and assess their law
reform needs and to draft the legislation required to implement the
UNCITRAL texts.  The UNCITRAL Secretariat is located in Vienna,
Austria.  The UNCITRAL maintains a website at www.uncitral.org.

For information contact:  Jenny Clift, Senior Legal Officer, UNCITRAL
Secretariat, E-mail:  jenny.clift@uncitral.org.

* *** *

************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Ext 16 Fax: +1.202.332.2673

Consumer Project on Technology
1 Route des  Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727

Consumer Project on Technology
24 Highbury Crescent, London, N5 1RX, UK
Tel: +44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252 Fax: +44(0)207 354 0607