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Electronic commerce has been described as unique, in the opportunities it creates for economic growth and its potential to revolutionise the way business is done. Although initial expectations and predictions have proven rather optimistic, it must nevertheless be accepted that electronic commerce has firmly established its place in the economies of the United Kingdom and European Union. Although considerable work and discussion has surrounded the creation of a regulatory framework for electronic commerce, insufficient attention has been given to the most fundamental element - the legal regime applicable to electronic contracts. Electronic contracts form the basis of electronic commerce. Parties have been contracting electronically for some time. However, electronic contracts have unique qualities and attributes making them sufficiently `different' to contracts entered by more `traditional' means to raise questions of the applicability and appropriateness of existing legal principles. This work is an examination of the legal environment within which electronic contracts are made. If electronic commerce is to reach its economic potential there must be a stable and predictable legal environment for electronic contracts. In this thesis the existing common law and regulatory principles are analysed, in the context of electronic contracts, to examine whether their application has the potential to create a stable legal environment. It is argued that a combination of, uncertainty in the common law; dated concepts in regulatory measures; and the introduction of new regulation without sufficient consideration of the nature of the electronic environment, has resulted in a lack of clarity in the law applicable to electronic contracts.

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No description available.

This thesis identifies the underlying values of German and English contract law. It establishes that to some extent almost all values are reflected in both jurisdictions but that in many cases the underlying values compete with each other. The thesis identifies the balance of the values in the context of four problem areas namely pre-contractual duties of disclosure (breaking off negotiations), mistake, unfair contract terms and changed circumstances. The thesis concludes that although almost all values are reflected in each system the balance of the values differs significantly. This is important and topical because identifying the balance of the competing values within a jurisdictions and contrasting these to another jurisdiction provides a deeper level of understanding of the courts' decision-making process. The particular questions which the research addresses are twofold, firstly, which values are competing within the context of a particular problem, and secondly, what weight is given to each value in a given context in contrast to the other jurisdiction. In order to address these questions a combination of doctrinal and comparative research methods is adopted. The focus is on the decisions of the respective courts', but doctrinal elements are also explored through the way in which cases were interpreted by academic writers at that particular time, while a functional comparative method is adopted. The work does not aim to create its own theory of contract or try to engage in the theoretical debate of which universal values 'should' apply. The implications of the research findings are that policies at a European level can more accurately identify the core underlying values if they firstly identify the viability of harmonising areas of contract law and at a national level and evaluate potential legislative changes in light of these values. Additionally, identification of the values also allows further research on the desirability of the values to be conducted.