The United Nations General Assembly has approved a new convention on the use of electronic information in international transactions, presented by the UN Commission on International Trade Law’s e-commerce expert group yesterday.
In the new convention, existing legal frameworks regarding electronic transactions such as the Model Law on Electronic Commerce and the Model Law on Electronic Signatures have been supplemented and strengthened.
This initiative aims to eliminate barriers to the use of electronic information in transactions, the signing of international commercial contracts, and international trade through new technologies such as email, electronic data interchange, and the use of the Internet.
The new convention establishes standards to ensure equal legal validity between paper and electronic documents in international transactions, ensuring that contracts negotiated and signed via electronic information hold the same validity and enforceability as traditional negotiated contracts. Based on this foundation, the convention is seen as an important legal tool to enhance international trade by leveraging the advantages of the global Internet.
Member states of the UN have two years to sign the convention starting from January 16, 2006. Six months after the UN receives the third ratification document from signatory countries, this document will take effect internationally.
THUY TUNG
