Commercial transactions on the internet

This study explores selected issues in the legal environment created by domestic and international electronic contracting practices on the Internet within the United States and international jurisdictions: questions regarding the formation of the contract through the Internet, the enforceability of such a contract (contractual writing requirements, legally binding signatures), the contents of the contract, the ways to prove the electronic contract, the applicable law and the competent court, and finally, the best ways to settle disputes arising from electronic contracts are considered. We examine to what extent contract law, and in particular article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), provides a satisfactory legal ground for the Internet, and how the various model trading partner agreements or the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's Draft Model Statutory Provisions (UNCITRAL DMSP) deal with legal contract issues. We attempt to show that contracts in Cyberspace do not require any substantial reform but only some changes and adaptations to existing law, since when the policy considerations that underlie an existing rule still make sense as applied to Cyberspace, a completely new rule is not worth having. (Abstract shortened by UMI.