Enforceability of electronic contracts in light of the Ethiopian General Contract Law: appraising the issues

摘要

Modern information communication technologies, especially the Internet, have been extensively used in contracts. Yet laws which govern contractual relationships were passed at a time when Internet was unknown. Due to this fact, conventional contract laws empirically face significant challenges to address legal controversies arising from electronic contracts. In the same fashion, Ethiopian General Contract Law is unfit to accommodate legal controversies resulting from the occurrence of electronic contracts. The main legal challenges due to the development of electronic contracts are uncertainty regarding legal recognition of data messages, issues associated with consummation of consent, attribution of communications, input errors, time of contract formation, formality requirements, variation, notice of nonperformance, privity of contract, admissibility and parole evidence rule of electronic records. The above-underlined issues, which stem from the emergence of electronic contracts, are hardly addressed by our civil code. Therefore, this work is mainly meant to make a humble attempt to examine the appropriateness of the Ethiopian General Contract Law to accommodate technologically driven electronic contracts.