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UN/CEFACT Mini Conference on “Ensuring Legally Significant Trusted Transboundary Electronic Interaction”

29 March 2017
Room XXIV, Palais des Nations Geneva Switzerland

Background

The rapid development of information technologies has given rise to their application in practically all spheres of today’s life. Mobile communications provide most of the world with the ability to exchange data with relative ease, including internationally. At the same time, the legal validity of many, if not the majority, of electronic exchanges across borders cannot be guaranteed. For business to business transactions, this may not be important if there is an agreement between the parties for the use of electronic communications. Yet, whenever governments and mandatory legislative requirements come into play, legal validity becomes a critical requirement. Ensuring the legal significance (i.e. validity) of electronic interactions is a complex problem and includes legal, organizational and technical aspects. Some of these problems are addressed by recommendations of the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and some by treaties, model laws and recommendations prepared by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and other organizations. However, many legal texts only address domestic/national recognition of electronic signatures and documents. Only a few of those legal texts seek to provide elements of the complete and reliable framework needed for ensuring international legal validity.

Specific requirements for ensuring the legal validity of electronic data and the legal significance of electronic interactions vary from industry to industry (usually based on trusted third parties) and from country to country (often based on multi-lateral and bi-lateral agreements), and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The result is an increasingly fragmented landscape, with “islands of trust” in a sea of uncertainty where many players, and particularly Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and developing countries, have limited or no access to these “islands” and the islands are generally not connected. Thus, unconnected and non-interoperable infrastructures and systems impact the reliability, traceability and integrity of electronic data transfers as well as the ability of many to participate in modern trade.

The purpose of the “Ensuring Legally Significant Trusted Transboundary Electronic Interaction” project (hereafter, Trusted Transboundary Project or TTP) is to formulate basic principles, identify possible solutions and prepare a recommendation on what countries could do in order to create, or support, an environment that recognises the legal validity of cross-border information exchanges. The aim is to facilitate trade by supporting the legal recognition of related transboundary electronic interactions. The TTP Working Group has prepared a draft recommendation on TTP and is looking for further input based on existing and emerging solutions to these issues.

The current draft recommendation, which has reached the third stage of the Open Development Progress (ODP), also calls for the harmonization of related legal frameworks under a UN body such as UNCITRAL. The TTP Working Group is looking for opportunities to further elaborate legal issues together with all stakeholders, especially dedicated UN bodies. In that respect, it should be noted that UNCITRAL Working Group IV (Electronic Commerce) has started working on the legal aspects of identity management and trust services.

Objective

Furthermore, the mini conference entitled “Ensuring Legally Significant Trusted Transboundary Electronic Interaction” Project Issues seeks to:

  • Present existing and emerging bi-lateral, regional/multi-lateral, sectoral and document-based systems for providing legal significance to electronic documents and ensuring the inter-operability of e-signatures in transboundary electronic interaction;
  • Identify good practices;
  • Establish a dialogue on TTP legal issues between UN/CEFACT, UNCITRAL and other international organizations; and
  • Define ways forward.

 Target Audience

  • Experts on trade facilitation and international trade and e-commerce law;
  • Trusted third party service providers;
  • Governmental supervisory bodies;
  • Conformity assessment bodies (auditors); and
  • Information security experts from governments, the private sector, academia and international organizations.

Organiser

This mini conference is being jointly organised by:

  • UNECE and UNCITRAL

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