Technological Contracts
Forthcoming in P.G. Monateri (ed.), Handbook of Comparative Contract Law, Elgar Publishing, 2015
28 Pages Posted: 30 Sep 2015
Date Written: September 27, 2015
Abstract
The most advanced legal systems showed some activism in regulating “electronic contracts”, as a synonym of a new model of commerce, when digital technologies brought about further challenges to traditional contract law. Regulation was pursued with different intensity and for different reasons, from the attempt to support national industries to the need to adapt to international standards to the demand for consumers’ protection. In all instances, regulatory responses have been to some extent not completely aware of the real impact modern technologies have on consent as the core component of contracts and on contracts as the pillar of individual autonomy. A further, sometimes neglected, consequence of this proposition is also that the interaction between technology and contract and its implications for contract law must be seen necessarily as influenced by approaches that are taken by judges, legislators and governments of different legal systems. Technology and contracts is a binomial that calls for a compelling comparative analysis, that provides the observer with a comprehensive view of local responses to common universal problems and developments posed by use of technology in contracts. In contract law, common law and civil law legal families are probably still the most active contributors in terms of doctrines, principles and cases; comparative law studies have to move along the lines drawn by those systems also as far as technological contracts are concerned.
Keywords: Contracts, Technology, Consent, Comparative Law
JEL Classification: K12, K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation