The Convention is aimed at enhancing legal certainty and commercial predictability where electronic communications are used to form international contracts.
Among other things, the provisions deal with: how to determine a party’s 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 – including “original” paper documents – as well as between electronic authentication methods and hand-written signatures.
According to the UN, 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.
It will be open for signature by all States at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 16th January 2006 to 16th January 2008.
The Convention is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval by the signatory States, and is open for accession by all States that are not signatory States. It will enter into force around six months after three States have ratified, accepted, approved or acceded to the Convention.
