The advent of interorganizational systems such as electronic data interchange (EDI) has introduced new problems and opportunities that must be addressed if the use of these systems is to grow. A major legal problem raised by the use of EDI is how to fulfill the traditional legal functions of business documents when they are electronic flows of data, not tangible writings on paper. Typically these documents not only perform legal acts but also provide evidence that the legal act has been performed. EDI is also an opportunity to be exploited in that its standardization and formal representation of business documents makes it possible to access their contents so that an information system can monitor the procedures performed using these documents. This thesis examines these problems and opportunities and describes a performative network, an interorganizational system that can be used to perform, evidence, and reason about the legal acts performed when documents are transmitted via the network. Focusing on the domain of documentary credit procedures, this thesis presents a domain model and a prototype implementation to demonstrate that information technology can be used as a legal intermediary in business procedures.
展开▼
