Kirsty Newman 18:43, 2 Sep 2004 (EST)
The development of e-commerce has not posed any problem in regard to the application to these principles when applied strictly in this way, but it can disrupt principles that are connected to these basic ones. For instance, once an offer has been made it can only be revoked before it has been accepted. In a traditional contract therefore, the time that the offer was accepted is crucial as to whether the offeror can back out of the deal. For instance, A may offer goods by email to B and B replies via email with his acceptance, but then A revokes her offer after B had sent his email of acceptance, but before A had received it. The time at which acceptance is effective is crucial here, but is it when B sent his email of acceptance, when that email enters A’s system, or when A actually reads the email. If it is when the email was sent then B cannot legally take back his offer, but if it is when A receives the email, then A’s revocation of his offer will be valid. This is just one demonstration of how a new environment such as email requires traditional laws to be developed to accommodate for it.
Another example is space. Since cyberspace may effectively be seen as spaceless, space concepts are disrupted in this environment and modern perceptions of space-time relations are challenged. This is because we conceptualise time and space as being linear, that is, having a certain shape and finite quality. Space, like time, seems to be irrelevant or even non-existent in the internet environment. This will challenge contract issues when the jurisdiction that governs the contract needs to be discerned when the contracting parties are from different jurisdictions, in each of which are different laws.
It is therefore, not in all situations that entirely new laws for electronically formed contracts will be formed. Existing contract laws may still apply. Of course, this process is in some circumstances challenged due to the fundamental difference between the traditional contract law framework which is paper-based, and that which it is being applied to, electronic contracts, which are a paper-less form. However, the general consensus beginning to form is that cyber-space in general is different enough to merit the formation of new and specifically applicable laws.
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