On 23 November 2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted, by resolution 60/21, the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts, prepared by UNCITRAL. It was not signed that day: Article 16 opens it for signature at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 16 January 2006 to 16 January 2008. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, equally authentic. Depositary: the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Article 23: it enters into force on the first day of the month following the expiration of six months after the deposit of the third instrument. Entry into force: 1 March 2013. It is not the 1996 UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce and not the 1980 Vienna Sales Convention.

Article 1: the Convention applies to the use of electronic communications in connection with the formation or performance of a contract between parties whose places of business are in different States. Article 2 excludes contracts concluded for personal, family or household purposes; transactions on a regulated exchange, foreign exchange, inter-bank payment and settlement systems; bills of exchange, promissory notes, bills of lading, warehouse receipts and any transferable document that entitles the bearer to claim delivery of goods or payment of a sum of money. Article 3: the parties may exclude the Convention or derogate from any of its provisions. Article 8: a communication or a contract shall not be denied validity or enforceability on the sole ground that it is in the form of an electronic communication; nothing requires a party to use or accept electronic communications, but agreement may be inferred from conduct.

Article 9: a writing requirement is met if the information is accessible so as to be usable for subsequent reference; a signature requirement is met if a method identifies the party and indicates that party’s intention and is as reliable as appropriate; an original is met if there is a reliable assurance as to integrity from the time the information was first generated in its final form. Article 10: dispatch is the time the communication leaves an information system under the originator’s control; receipt is the time it becomes capable of being retrieved at a designated electronic address; it is deemed dispatched and received at the places of business, not at the location of the supporting system. Article 11: a proposal generally accessible to parties using information systems, including interactive applications for placing orders, is an invitation to make offers, unless it clearly indicates the intention to be bound in case of acceptance. Article 12: a contract formed by an automated message system shall not be denied validity on the sole ground that no natural person reviewed each individual action.

Article 20 applies the Convention to electronic communications in connection with the 1958 New York Convention on arbitral awards, the Limitation Period Convention (1974), the CISG (1980) and other listed instruments, and, unless a State declares otherwise, to other treaties to which it is or may become a party. Article 22: no reservations may be made. Article 25: denunciation takes effect on the first day of the month following the expiration of twelve months after notification.

Adopted at New York, 23 November 2005.

United Nations General Assembly Hall, New York. The place of adoption, not a signing ceremony. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

For context: Electronic Communications Convention. The text: United Nations, General Assembly resolution 60/21.