This article presents the views of the Law Commission on whether law reform is required to prevent formal requirements in various commercial transactions hindering the development of electronic commerce. These views were originally published in the Law Commissions Advice to Government entitled Electronic Commerce: Formal Requirements in Commercial Transactions. In this article we consider the extent to which electronic communications are capable of satisfying the formal requirements of “writing”, “signature” and “document” that apply in relation to commercial matters. We conclude that there is no need for general legislative reform. Where particular statutory rules conflict with the requirements of the Electronic Commerce Directive, an order under the Electronic Communications Act 2000, s. 8 can be used to effect context-specific reform. We consider the use of electronic communications in particular commercial contexts, including carriage of goods by sea, sale of goods, carriage by road, rail and air, insurance, factoring and payment mechanisms. Of the areas considered, the scheme under the Marine Insurance Act 1906 is the only one that we believe currently requires reform.

In December 2001 the Law Commission published its Advice to Government entitled Electronic Commerce: Formal Requirements in Commercial Transactions. 1 The focus of the Advice is the international sale and carriage of goods and the associated banking and insurance transactions.2 In this Advice we reviewed the extent to which the current law is able to meet the developing needs of electronic commerce. To speed up publication, and in light of its limited nature, it was decided that the Advice would be sent to a range of directly interested parties. Wider publicity would be given to the findings by publishing an article on them in a journal that is very widely read by practitioners and academics interested in the field. We are very grateful to this Quarterly and its editor for helping us to achieve this. The full text of the Advice is available on our website.3