The law of electronic contract

The growth of electronic commerce has proportionally increased the use of electronic contracts as a faster and innovative way to carry out business. Between 1998 and 2002 most countries adapted their domestic commercial legislation to recognize electronic contracts and signatures as legally valid instruments. Still some less-developed countries are accomplishing this task. Even so, despite the inexorable expansion of e-commerce and the promulgation of laws protecting e-commerce contracts, many businesses and Internet users do not know precisely what law applies to their e-commerce contracts. In addition to these specific laws, there are some international laws that may well apply to electronic contracts if the contractual parties decide to abide by them. This article does not address the explicit international laws applicable to electronic contracts.