Legal regulation of conclusion of electronic economic contracts

Abstract

Background. Analysis Mandatory of the conclusion of economic agreement in writing is established by the current legislation. With the adoption of the Law of Ukraine "On electronic commerce" in 2015 the need to study the problems of using of electronic form of the contract arose before the scientists that will significantly simplify the procedure of their conclusion for economic entities. So far the issue of conclusion of electronic economic contracts and adjustment of the legislative norms on electronic and written forms of contract is relevant.
The analysis of recent researches and publications. The research of many domestic scientists is devoted to the study of issue of forms of contract; however, the main attention is paid to the issues of the application of the written form of the contract. At the same time, the development of modern information technology and the Internet network enables business entities to conclude electronic contracts. Currently, there is a need to study the order of their conclusion in Ukraine and abroad, including the signing of the contract with the help of electronic digital signature.
Theaim of the article is the study of the issues of law regulation of the conclusion of electronic economic contracts and definition of the directions of its further improvement.
Materials and methods. In the work the set of general scientific methods of knowledge and special methods of legal science is used, the totality of which allowed giving the evaluation to legal regulation of the conclusion of electronic economic contracts, reveal existing disadvantages of such regulation and formulate scientific and legal offers of its elimination.
The results of the research. At present, in the legislation there is no definition of the concept of the form of the contract, there is no common understanding in the scientific literature too. The author of the article conducted the analysis of the law of Ukraine on the conclusion of economic contracts in the electronic form, the problems of legal regulation of their conclusion using electronic signatures were considered and the ways of their solution were suggested.
Conclusion. The concept of contract form can be defined as a way of reflection of the mutual will expression of the parties of contract to its content on the appropriate media. Despite the fact that the legislation of Ukraine set the rule of conclusion of economic contracts in writing, the adoption of the Laws of Ukraine "On electronic commerce", "On electronic documents and electronic document flow" and "On electronic digital signature" was a prerequisite for implementation in the economic activity of electronic contracts.
Law of Ukraine "On electronic commerce" defined a procedure of their conclusion and ways of signing: with the use of electronic signature, electronic digital signature and electronic signature by disposable identifier, however, the procedure for signing wasn’t defined.