Zbornik Radova: Pravni Fakultet u Novom Sadu (Jan 2018)
On the electronic form of contracts in domestic law
Abstract
The electronic form of the contract is the new institute of the contract law that arose as a consequence of the development of electronic commerce and the efforts to secure the legal effect of the contracts concluded through the Internet. At the level of the European Union, regulations have been adopted with the aim of eliminating obstacle to the effective conclusion of a contract by electronic means and among these obstacles are certainly the conditions concerning the form of the contract. Subsequently, the corresponding changes to existing regulations in the EU Member States have been made, as well as in the countries that are Aspiring to become one of the Member states. In the paper Author examined if the electronic form is suitable to replace the written form in cases when the written form is required as a condition for the validity of the contract. Also, the paper analyzes domestic legislative solutions that relate to the electronic form of the contract. In addition, it was examined whether there is a basis in the Law on Obligation for the recognition of the electronic form of the contract as a replacement for the written form. At the end of the paper authors proposed how to regulate the electronic form of the contract in order to eliminate the existing uncertainties which were pointed out in the paper.
