[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 168 (Tuesday, August 31, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53128-53129]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-19864]


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DEPARTMENT OF STATE

[Public Notice 4783]


Advisory Committee on Private International Law Request for 
Public Comments on a Draft UN Convention on Electronic Commerce

    Summary: Comment is sought on a draft UNCITRAL convention 
(multilateral treaty) on use of electronic messaging in the formation 
of contracts and related matters. Completion of the convention is 
possible by the Fall of 2005; it is then optional for member States to 
accept and implement the convention. Advisory Committee meetings will 
be held as indicated below; additional meetings will be scheduled after 
the next UNCITRAL Working Group meeting in mid-October to review 
changes to the draft text. Persons not able to attend are welcome to 
provide comments at any time as indicated below.
    Request for Comments: The Office of Legal Advisor of the Department 
of State requests comments on the current and future drafts of a 
convention under consideration by the United Nations Commission on 
International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), through its Working Group IV on 
electronic commerce, designed to promote basic enabling laws on 
enforceability of electronic messaging related to contractual matters. 
The draft may encompass default rules on dispatch and receipt, error 
correction in automated transactions, location for purposes of applying 
the convention and for determining applicable law, and other matters 
affecting international electronic transactions within its scope.
    Documentation: The current draft, Working Group IV's recent 
document WP.110, can be obtained on UNCITRAL's Web site at http://www.uncitral.org (http://

[[Page 53129]]

www.uncitral.org/English/workinggroups/wgIVec/index.htm). Commentators 
may wish to review additional documents therein listed, including 
reports of prior Working Group meetings, Secretariat analyses, and 
other matters.
    Project Timing: The UNCITRAL Working Group, composed of member and 
observer States and participants from other governmental and non-
governmental organizations, will review the current draft text in mid-
October at United Nations offices in Vienna, Austria, and a revised 
draft is expected to be available for comment by mid-November. The 
revised text will be reviewed by the Working Group at its next meeting 
in April 2005 in New York. If sufficient progress has been made and if 
support from enough countries is evidenced, the text could be finalized 
at UNCITRAL's annual Plenary session in July 2005. If that is not 
feasible, a text could be completed at the next succeeding annual 
plenary session in mid-2006. Once completed and if endorsed by the UN 
General Assembly, consideration would be given in the United States 
whether and on what terms to join the new treaty, or implement it in 
another manner, and whether to promote its adoption by other States.
    Overview: As now drafted, the convention is intended to expand a 
common base-line between participating States of general principles 
applying to electronic transactional communications. These principles 
are largely drawn from relevant parts of the 1996 UNCITRAL Model law on 
Electronic Commerce, as well as similar provisions in uniform state 
laws and federal law adopted in the United States, including the 1999 
Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), and the Electronic 
Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (``E-Sign''), enacted by 
Congress in 2000. In addition to commercial transactions within its 
scope that cross State boundaries, the proposed convention would also 
apply to transactions governed by certain listed UN commercial law 
conventions and to such other treaties and international agreements as 
may be agreed upon by participating States. As an overlay to existing 
laws, the convention would be designed to promote harmonized rules and 
fill gaps between the laws that may otherwise apply, thus promoting 
efficiency and certainty in cross-border transactions. Particular 
notice should be given to certain provisions of the draft convention: 
Article 2 on general exclusions from the convention; Article 3 on party 
autonomy, which permits parties to vary or modify the convention's 
terms as to their transactions; Article 8, which provides that parties 
cannot be obligated by this treaty to use e-messages; and Article 18, 
which allows each country to exclude such further matters as it deems 
appropriate. Finally, as the present draft indicates, it is expected 
that a number of optional provisions (called declarations) will permit 
States to further modify certain provisions from time to time. That 
flexibility, as well as the optional exclusions in article 18, would 
allow adjustment of the rules to specific classes of transactional 
activity, as usages change and the needs of electronic commerce grow 
over time.
    Commentators should take into account the provisions of current 
laws in the United States noted above, as well as other state and 
federal law. Attention should also be given to existing legal treatment 
in other countries and in regional bodies such as the European Union, 
as well as relevant treaties and international agreements.
    Public Comment: Comments can be sent to the Office of the Assistant 
Legal Adviser for Private International Law of the Department of State 
in any form addressed to Harold S. Burman (L/PIL) 2430 E Street, NW., 
Suite 355 South Building,Washington, DC 20037-2800, or by fax to (202) 
776-8482, or by e-mail to [email protected].
    Meeting(s): Persons wishing to attend one or more public meetings 
or to receive direct notice of further convention drafts and other 
information may do so by contacting Cherise Reid at [email protected] or 
by fax at (202) 776-8482 with their names, contact numbers, including 
e-mail addresses, and affiliations, if any. Meetings are expected to be 
scheduled in the week of September 13 in the Washington, DC 
metropolitan area in conjunction with a forum on CEFACT, a body of the 
UN's Economic Commission for Europe, and additional meetings are 
expected to be scheduled after release of the next revised draft 
convention in November 2004.

    Dated: August 24, 2004.
Harold S. Burman,
Advisory Committee Executive Director, Department of State.
[FR Doc. 04-19864 Filed 8-30-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4710-08-P