UN전자계약협약에 관한 연구

Abstract

'United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts' (hereinafter “Convention”) was signed in 2008 caused of its needs in electronic environment, but has not been ratified so far. If ratified, Electronic Communications Convention shall have same effect as a domestic statutory law through the process of ratification without consent of National Assembly. From this point of view, this paper deals with the question of whether Korea has to ratify the Convention and the possibility of harmonization with domestic law by introducing the content of Electronic Communications Convention and comparing with related domestic laws. For this, this paper introduces main features of the Convention, such as objective of the Convention, main principles on which the Convention is based, sphere of application, party autonomy, definitions, interpretation standard, location of the parties, information requirements, legal recognition of electronic communications, form requirements, time and place of dispatch and receipt of electronic communications, invitations to make offers, automated message system, availability of contract terms, error in electronic communications, etc. After looking into such issues, this paper suggests that Korea would better positively and actively consider the ratification of the Convention because Korea is the leading country in ICT and Korean legal system on ICT is no special problem which hinders the ratification. Regarding to the issue of equivalence between the Convention applying to international electronic contract and municipal laws applying to domestic electronic transactions, there are restrictive scope of domestic law provisions necessary to be modified, such as provisions related location of the parties, form requirements, etc. Even those necessity for modification of law is not urgent. In conclusion, it is necessary to ratify the Convention to play the key role as a leading country in the international electronic environment.