INTRODUCTION 1
1 THE PROBLEM 2
2 THE PARTIES INVOLVED 5
3 STRUCTURE 7
4 METHOD 9
5 SOURCES 10
6 THE CLAIMS 12
7 THE NOVELTY FACTOR 14
8 A REGULATION FOR OPEN EDI 16
9 USER GROUP 16
10 OUTLINE 17
CHAPTER 1 OPEN EDI AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE 21
1.1 ELECTRONIC COMMERCE APPLICATIONS 22
1.1.1 Why EDI? 24
1.2 THE ROLES OF THE PARTICIPANTS IN EDI TRANSACTIONS 25
1.3 OPEN EDI vs.EDI 27
1.3.1 Open EDI and open networks 30
1.4 OPEN EDI IN PERSPECTIVE 30
1.4.1 Open EDI in an international perspective 31
1.4.2 EDI in a European perspective 31
1.4.3 Open EDI for the developing world? 33
1.4.4 EDI for the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises 34
1.5 CONCLUSIONS 35
Summary 36
CHAPTER 2 LEGAL PROBLEMS OF OPEN EDI 37
2.1 THE DEMATERIALISATION OF DOCUMENTS 38
2.1.1 Validity and formation of a contract 38
2.1.1.1 Paper as information carrier 39
2.1.1.2 Barriers arising from national laws 41
2.1.1.3 Barriers arising from international laws 46
2.1.2 Time and place of the formation of a contract 48
2.1.3 UN/EDIFACT messages for hosting obligations 53
2.1.4 Admissibility and evidential value of electronic messages 56
2.1.4.1 Formal requirements 57
2.1.4.1 a Article 444,3 of the Greek Code of Civil Procedure 58
2.1.4.1b The position of the German Code of Civil Procedure 61
2.1.4.2 The material requirement-criteria for the evaluation of electronic evidence 63
2.1.5 Securing electronic documents 64
2.1.5.1 Security risks associated with EDI 65
2.1.5.2 Remedies 67
2.1.5.2a Digital signatures and cryptography 68
2.1.5.3 Encryption in public standards 72
2.1.5.4 Trusted third parties 73
2.1.5.5 Security as a matter of legal policy for open EDI 75
2.1.6 Dispute resolution in open EDI 78
2.2 LIABILITY IN OPEN EDI 80
2.2.1 User liability issues 80
2.2.1.1 Format, message standards and scenarios 81
2.2.1.2 Transmit information according to the commercial agreement 82
2.2.1.3 Obligation to follow security requirements 82
2.2.1.4 Liabity for the acts or omissions of a third party 83
2.2.2 Liability of the UN/EDIFACT board? 85
2.2.2.1 Solutions for the shortcomings of the UN/EDIFACT 86
2.2.2.1 a A disclaimer in the interchange agreements 86
2.2.2.1b ETERMS and a legal segment in the UN/EDIFACT 87
2.2.2.1c Rules for open EDI scenarios 87
2.2.3 Liability of network service providers 88
2.2.4 Liability and open EDI in perspective 92
2.3 COMPETITION LAW CONSIDERATIONS 94
2.3.1 Prohibited agreements 95
2.3.2 Monopolising or discriminating in the use of a standard 97
2.3.3 Innovation and open EDI 100
2.3.4 Open EDI and competition in a European perspective 102
2.4 CONCLUSIONS 103
Summary 106
CHAPTER 3 SUBSTANTIVE CRITERIA FOR A LEGAL REGULATION OF OPEN EDI 109
3.1 VALIDITY AND THE FORMATION OF A CONTRACT 110
3.2 ELECTRONIC MESSAGES AS EVIDENCE 112
3.3 LIABILITY 112
3.4 DISPUTE RESOLUTION 113
3.5 SECURITY OF MESSAGES 114
3.6 STANDARD BUSINESS SCENARIOS 115
3.7 CONCLUSIONS 116
Summary 118
CHAPTER 4 INTERCHANGE AGREEMENTS 121
4.1 WHY INTERCHANGE AGREEMENTS? 122
4.1.1 Interchange agreements, the underlying commercial agreement and the networking issues 123
4.2 INTERCHANGE AGREEMENTS AND CONTRACT LAW THEORY 125
4.2.1 The theory of rightful regulation 127
4.3 INTERCHANGE AGREEMENTS AND THE ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF LAW 129
4.4 WAYS TO DRAFT AN INTERCHANGE AGREEMENT 131
4.4.1 Informal agreements 131
4.4.1.1 Why informal interchange agreements 132
4.4.1.2 Why refrain from an informal agreement 133
4.4.1.3 When to endorse an informal interchge agreement 135
4.4.2 Formal or written agreements 136
4.4.2.1 Model interchge agreements 137
4.4.2.1 a Assessing model interchge agreements 138
4.4.2.2 Self drafted interchge agreements 140
4.4.2.2a The role of the self drafted agreements 141
4.4.2.2b Self drafted interchge agreements and the general conditions 144
4.5 ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF INTERCHANGE AGREEMENTS 145
4.5.1 A Code of Practice 146
4.5.2 A Standard Interchange Agreement 148
4.6 INTERCHANGE AGREEMENTS IN OPEN EDI 149
4.7 CONCLUSIONS 150
Summary 151
CHAPTER 5 INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL STATUTES ON EDI 153
5.1 UNITED NATIONS 154
5.1.1 United Nations, Economic Commission for Europe 155
5.1.2 United Nations Commission on International Trade Law 156
5.1.2.1 The UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce 156
5.1.2.2 Perspective 156
5.2 THE PROGRAMME TEDIS AND THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION 164
5.2.1 The European Model EDI Agreement 165
5.2.2 The impact of the Recommendation 166
5.3 INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 170
5.3.1 Other ICC initiatives 171
5.4 THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA ACT ON PROMOTION OF TRADE BUSINESS AUTOMATION 173
5.4.1 The effect of the Act on EDI 173
5.4.2 Provisions of the Act 174
5.4.2.1 Provisions for network service providers 174
5.4.2.2 Provisions for EDI users 176
5.4.2.3 Provisions for the use of information networks 178
5.4.2.4 Disclosure of data 179
5.4.3 Comments 179
5.5 THE DIGITAL SIGNATURE ACT OF THE STATE OF UTAH 181
5.5.1 The Act 183
5.5.2 Licensing and regulation of Certification Authorities 184
5.5.3 Duties of the Certification Authorities and the users of digital signatures 185
5.5.4 Effect of digital signatures 186
5.5.5 State services and Recognised Repositories 187
5.5.6 Biometrics as alternatives to digital signatures 188
5.6 CONCLUSIONS 190
Summary 192
CHAPTER 6 A REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR OPEN EDI 195
6.1 A FRAMEWORK REGULATION FOR CORE LEGAL ISSUES 196
6.2 A NON NEGOTIATED REGULATION FOR CORE LEGAL ISSUES 197
6.3 REFLECT CORE LEGAL CONCERNS OF OPEN EDI 199
6.4 IN ACCORDANCE WITH EXISTING LEGISLATION ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND SUPPORTIVE OF AN INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL ENVIRONMENT 199
6.5 EFFECTED AND ACCESSIBLE BY ELECTRONIC MEANS 200
6.6 INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE 201
6.7 A REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR OPEN EDI 202
6.7.1 The current framework for the legal regulation of EDI 203
6.7.2 A conceptual framework for the regulation of open EDI 206
6.7.3 Perspective 209
6.8 CONCLUSIONS 210
Summary 211
CHAPTER 7 A LEGAL ADVISORY SYSTEM 213
7.1 JURICAS - A LEGAL ADVISORY SYSTEM SHELL 214
7.1.1 Programming in JURICAS 214
7.1.2 Programming options and utility programs 217
7.2 ADVISORY SYSTEMS AND THE PROMISE OF EXPERT SYSTEMS 218
7.3 STRUCTURE AND METHOD 222
7.4 FUNCTIONS AND LAYOUT 222
7.4.1 A pseudo-hypertext facility 224
7.5 COMPONENTS 225
7.6 MAINTENANCE, DISTRIBUTION AND UPGRADING 226
7.7 VALUE FOR OPEN EDI 227
7.8 CONCLUSIONS 229
Summary 230
CHAPTER 8 AN AUTOMATED INTERCHANGE AGREEMENT 231
8.1 THE CONTENTS 232
8.2 THE SYSTEM 235
8.3 MODUS OPERANDI OF LX 239
8.4 DISTRIBUTION, MAINTENANCE AND UPGRADING 241
8.5 VALUE FOR OPEN EDI 243
8.6 CONCLUSIONS 245
Summary 246
CHAPTER 9 A REPOSITORY OF LEGAL TERMS 249
9.1 THE ETERMS REPOSITORY 250
9.2.LEGAL ISSUES 253
9.2.1 Constructive notice 253
9.2.2 Incorporation by reference 254
9.2.3 Liability 255
9.2.4 Arbitration 255
9.2.5 Form requirements for the submitted terms 255
9.3.TECHNICAL ISSUES 256
9.3.1 Public key infrastructure 256
9.3.2 Access 257
9.3.3 Organisation of the ETERMS Repository 258
9.4 ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE 258
9.5 EXTENSIONS OF THE ETERMS PROJECT 259
9.6 VALUE FOR OPEN EDI 259
9.7 CONCLUSIONS 262
Summary 263
CHAPTER 10 EUROPEAN LEGISLATION 265
10.1 THE NEED TO REGULATE AND THE PROMISE OF LEGISLATION 266
10.2 TOWARDS A EUROPEAN DIRECTIVE ON OPEN EDI? 268
10.3 HARMONISATION OF PRINCIPLES OF PRIVATE LAW - A EUROPEAN CIVIL CODE 272
10.4 THE UNIDROIT PRINCIPLES FOR COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS AND THE UNILAW DATA BASE 274
10.5 A NEW LEGAL LAYER FOR OPEN EDI 276
10.6 CONCLUSIONS 278
Summary 280
CONCLUSIONS 281
1 LAW AND ELECTRONIC DATA 281
2 LEGAL QUESTIONS OF OPEN EDI AND WAYS TO ADDRESS THEM 282
3 A CONCEPTUAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR OPEN EDI 283
4 TOWARDS A SOLUTION TO THE LEGAL PROBLEMS OF OPEN EDI 285
5 LIMITATIONS OF THIS RESEARCH 286
6 FUTURE RESEARCH 287
7 PUTTING SUGGESTIONS INTO PRACTICE 289
APPENDIX Ⅰ THE JURICAS CODE OF LEDIA 293
APPENDIX Ⅱ THE JURICAS CODE OF LX 301
REFERENCES 311
TABLE OF CASES 325
TABLE OF STATUTES 327
TABLE OF FIGURES 329
TABLE OF INTERNET SITES 329
INDEX OF NAMES 331
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 335