Legal Regulation of International Commercial Electronic Contracts. Technological and Legal Aspects of Electronic Signature

In the modern realities of converting document flow to the digital plane, the issues of validity of contracts concluded in electronic form, as well as the conditions for recognizing an electronic signature, are of particular importance. In this regard, the authors turn to the study of the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts of 2005, as well as other international trade agreements to clarify their applicability to cross-border contracts concluded in electronic form.

In the paper, the authors raise the question of the validity of an electronic cross-border transaction that falls under the regulation of the Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 1980, the USSR reservation to which on the inadmissibility of concluding a contract not in writing, but in any form, continues to apply. In this regard, the authors explore the possibility of interpreting article 13 of the 1980 Vienna Convention containing the definition of the "written form", outside of the general rule of interpretation of the provisions of the 1980 Vienna Convention provided for in article 7.

Based on the comparative analysis of national and international legal norms, norms of soft law regulating electronic documents, the authors reveal a number of problems arising from the lack of specificity of the mechanism of recognition of foreign electronic signatures in Russia and put forward proposals for their solution. To this end, the authors explore the possibilities of developing international standards for the compatibility of technological algorithms for electronic digital signatures using an asymmetric scheme, based on which foreign certificates of electronic signature keys can be recognized. 

1. Boguslavskiy MM, editor. Venskaya konventsiya o dogovorakh mezhdunarodnoy kupli-prodazhi tovarov : kommentariy [The Vienna Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods: Commentary]. Moscow; 1994. (In Russ.)

2. Kanashevskiy VA. Vneshneekonomicheskie sdelki: osnovnye regulyatory, ikh sootnoshenie i vzaimodeystvie : avtoref. dis. ... d-ra yurid. nauk [Foreign economic transactions: the main regulators, their correlation and interaction. Abstract of the Dr. Sci. (Law) Dissertation]. Moscow; 2009. (In Russ.)

3. Kozinets NV. Voprosy pravovogo regulirovaniya elektronnykh podpisey v ramkakh osushchestvleniya transgranichnoy elektronnoy torgovli [Issues of legal regulation of electronic signatures in the framework of cross-border electronic commerce]. Fundamentalnye i prikladnye issledovaniya v sovremennom mire. 2017;18- 3:70-73. (In Russ.)

4. Korzhov VYu, Zakharova NA. Kommentariy k Federalnomu Zakonu ot 6 aprelya 2011 g. № 63-FZ «Ob elektronnoy podpisi» [Commentary to Federal Law No. 63-FZ of April 6, 2011 "On electronic signatures"]. Kovaleva NN, editor. Computer-based legal reference system "Garant"; 2016. (In Russ.)

5. Rosenberg MG. Mezhdunarodnaya kuplya-prodazha tovarov: kommentariy k zakonodatelstvu i praktike razresheniya sporov [International sale and purchase of goods: Commentary on the law and practice of dispute resolution]. Moscow: Contract: Infra-M; 2001. (In Russ.)

6. Savelyev AI. Elektronnaya kommertsiya v Rossii i za rubezhom: pravovoe regulirovanie [E-Commerce in Russia and abroad: Legal regulation]. Moscow: Statute; 2014. (In Russ.)

7. Strigunova DP. Pravovoe regulirovanie mezhdunarodnykh kommercheskikh dogovorov: monografiya: v 2 t. [Legal regulation of international commercial contracts: monograph: in 2 vol.]. 2nd ed., rev. and suppl. Moscow: Justicinform; 2018. Vol. 2. (In Russ.)