Abstract
The explosive growth of the Internet in the last two decades has fuelled a revolution in the way commerce is conducted. Electronic commerce allows businesses to reach out to global markets that are no longer bound by geography or time. Increasingly, governments, businesses and consumers are using information technology and the Internet to electronically exchange information, produce, market, buy, sell and even deliver products and services to places virtually unreachable before. Relative to traditional practices and procedures, e-commerce increases convenience and choice, fosters competition and more importantly generates new business opportunities and market efficiencies.
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Notes
- 1.
In 2007, on average, 95 % of medium and large businesses in OECD countries and 85 % of businesses in non-OECD countries were using the Internet. On average, about four out of five businesses with 10 or more employees in OECD countries had a broadband connection in 2007, and three out of four had their own website. On average, one-third of such businesses used the Internet for purchasing and 17 % for selling goods and services.
- 2.
‘“Electronic signature” is defined as data in electronic form in, affixed to or logically associated with, a data message, which may be used to identify the signatory in relation to the data message and to indicate the signatory’s approval of the information contained in the data message’. See UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures 2001 art 2(a).
- 3.
Digital signature is a type of electronic signature, which is ‘created and verified by using cryptography, the branch of applied mathematics that concerns itself with transforming messages into seemingly unintelligible form and back into the original form’. See UNCITRAL, Guide to Enactment of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures (2001) [36]. http://www.uncitral.org/pdf/english/texts/electcom/mlelecsig-e.pdf. at 5 August 2011. Note a detailed explanation of these technologies is provided in Chap. 2.
- 4.
R J Richards, ‘The Utah Digital Signature Act As “Model” Legislation: A Critical Analysis’ (1999) 17(3) The John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law http://www.jcil.org/journal/articles/217.html at 12 September 2011.
- 5.
See California Secretary of State, California Digital Signature Regulations: California Government Code Section 16.5, http://www.sos.ca.gov/digsig/code-section-16-5.htm at 28 January 2011.
- 6.
See note 10 for the definition of technology-neutral or minimalist approach legislation.
- 7.
The US states such as Minnesota, Mississippi and Missouri followed the Utah model. Other states such as Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut and Delaware followed the Californian model. Note that all of these legislation were superseded by the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (UETA) and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act 2000 (E-Sign). This has been discussed in detail in Chap. 3.
- 8.
See Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 on a Community Framework for Electronic Signatures [2000] OJ L13/13. The text of the Directive can be found at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31999L0093:EN:HTML at 12 May 2011.
- 9.
See UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce 1996 and Model Law on Electronic Signatures 2001. The text of these model laws can be found on the UNCITRAL website at http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/uncitral_texts/electronic_commerce/1996Model.html and http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/uncitral_texts/electronic_commerce/2001Model_signatures.html at 15 January 2011.
- 10.
See Minyan Wang, ‘Do the Regulations on Electronic Signatures Facilitate Electronic Commerce? A Critical Review’ (2007) 23 Computer Law & Security Report 32; Paul R Schapper, Mercedes Rivolta and Joao Veiga Malta, ‘Risk and Law in Authentication’ (2006) 3(1) Digital Evidence Journal 10; Babette Aalberts, and Simone van der Hof, ‘Digital Signature Blindness’ (2000) 7 The EDI Law Review 1.
- 11.
Most common law countries have adopted a minimalist approach legislation. These include the USA, the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and New Zealand. Note the legal functions of a signature have been discussed in detail in Chap. 2.
- 12.
The technology-specific approach has also been referred as a prescriptive approach in the literature.
- 13.
These digital signatures are usually based on public-key infrastructure (PKI). See Digital Signature Act 1997 (Malaysia). Note some countries initially adopted a technology-specific approach but later amended their legislation to either a two-pronged or minimalist approach. For example, Italy, India and Germany, a technology-specific legislation was initially enacted but was later amended to a two-pronged approach legislation.
- 14.
EU’s Electronic Signatures Directive is a good example of a two-pronged approach legislation. Most countries in the EU have adopted the Electronic Signatures Directive. The legislation of China is also considered as a two-pronged approach legislation. See Electronic Signature Law 2004 (China); See also Wang, above n 10, 36.
- 15.
See Commission of the European Communities, Report on the operation of Directive 1999/93/EC on a Community framework for electronic signatures (2006). http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/docs/single_info_space/com_electronic_signatures_report_en.pdf at 11 May 2011.
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
See H Saripan and Z Hamin, ‘The Application of Digital Signature Law in Securing Internet Banking: Some Preliminary Evidence from Malaysia’ (2011) 3 Procedia Computer Science 248; eGovernment, Take-up of electronic signatures remains low in Germany (2004) epractice.eu. http://www.epractice.eu/document/1276 at 12 March 2011; Pascale Prud’homme and Hassana Chira-aphakul, E-Commerce in Thailand: A Slow Awakening, Thailand Law Forum. http://thailawforum.com/articles/e-commerce.html at 14 December 2010.
- 18.
See Heiko Roßnagel, ‘On Diffusion and Confusion – Why Electronic Signatures Have Failed’. In S Fischer-Hübner et al. (Eds) Trust and Privacy in Digital Business (2006) 71; Jane K Winn, ‘The Emperor New Clothes: The Shocking Truth about Digital Signatures and Internet Commerce’ (2001) 37(2) Idaho Law Review 353; Raymond Perry, ‘Digital Signatures – Security Issues And Real-World Conveyancing’ (2001) 151 New Law Journal 1100. See also in the Australian context, Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee, Parliament of Victoria, Inquiry into Fraud and Electronic Commerce (2004) (180). http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/dcpc/Reports/DCPC_FraudElectronicCommerce_05-01-2004.pdf at 21 April 2011.
- 19.
Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee, Parliament of Victoria, Inquiry into Fraud and Electronic Commerce (2004) 180. http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/dcpc/Reports/DCPC_FraudElectronicCommerce_05-01-2004.pdf at 21 April 2011.
- 20.
A five-stage framework analysis method was adopted for analysing the interview data. In stage 1 (familiarisation), the author familiarised himself with the interview transcripts and obtained an overview of the collected data. In stage 2 (identifying a thematic framework), an initial coding was conducted from the issues emerging from stage 1 to set up a thematic framework. The thematic framework at this stage was only tentative, and further refining was made at subsequent stages of analysis. In stage 3 (indexing), the initial coding or in other words the thematic framework was applied to the collected data through the use of textual codes to identify those segments of the interview transcripts that reflected a particular theme. In stage 4 (charting), specific pieces of data corresponding to a particular theme were pulled out from the interview transcripts and arranged in charts with each chart representing a specific theme. After all the indexing and charting were done in accordance with the themes, in the final stage 5 (mapping and interpretation), the author examined the key characteristics of the collected data with a view to mapping and interpreting the data set as a whole. The above five steps were carried out with the help of NVivo, a software package well known for the analysis of qualitative data.
- 21.
Note that semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face or through telephone to collect participants’ views on the potential issues associated with the low usage of electronic signatures.
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Srivastava, A. (2012). Introduction. In: Electronic Signatures for B2B Contracts. Springer, India. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-0743-6_1
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