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10 Jun 2001, Nigeria

Dear Dr Ecommerce,

I am writing a term paper on the scope of the proper law of contract. I would like to highlight the effect that ecommerce has on the proper law. So my question is how has e-commerce affected the proper law of contract? Your help would be appreciated.

Thanks Kate

Dear Kate:

I handed your question over to my lawyer, who is passionate about contract law. She replies:

"E-commerce has influenced contract law a great deal so far. Of course national contract law initially had no provisions on questions related to e-commerce (e.g: is it possible at all to conclude a contract electronically? Is it possible to sign a contract with an electronic signature? When is the contract deemed to be concluded? What kind of information needs to be given before the conclusion of a contract etc?)

Member States of the European Union have now started to deal with all these questions by changing their national contract law. This happens mainly through the implementation of the E-commerce Directive which includes a lot of provisions on these issues. Of course directives only indicate the goals to be achieved. It is up to Member States how to transform them into national legislation."

As for me, I would suggest you join the eThesis discussion forum and post your question there.

Good luck,

Dr. Ecommerce