More International Contracts Law Scholarship

Florida Coastal School of Law’s Charles Martin (pictured) recently published The Electronic Contracts Convention, the CISG, and New Sources of E-Commerce Law  in 16 Tulane Journal of International and Comparative Law 1 (Fall 2007).  Here’s the abstract: 

Although no non-European Unionconvention focusing on international electronic commercial contracts iscurrently in effect, such contracts are growing in number andimportance and do not exist in a legal vacuum. The Convention onContracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) has beeninterpreted by its Advisory Council to apply to such electroniccontracts. International law, based on general principles of good faithand equity and on customary international law, is an existing andfuture source of international commercial electronic contract law.Customary international electronic commerce law is derived from thegeneral practices of businesses contracting through electroniccommunications that are accepted as law, and from internationaltreaties and model laws, and their interpretations, which have beenaccepted as authoritative descriptions of such practices. The UnitedStates will decide whether or not and how to ratify the Convention onthe Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts(CUECIC) that was proposed by it to the United Nations Commission onInternational Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and was drafted and approved byUNCITRAL. CUECIC advances further than existing law the legitimacy andfunctionality of international electronic commercial contracts. U.S.ratification decision makers should recognize this advancement,reinforce the freedom of contract norms promoted by CUECIC, andpreserve the legitimacy of customary international law as a supplementto the limited contract formation rules of CUECIC.

[Jeremy Telman]