Electronic Signature: Reviewing the Legal Issues on Its Validity and Authentication under Nigeria Law (Published)
Since the emergence of e-commerce in the nineties, security has become a significant barrier to its growth. Businesses and individuals involved in e-commerce must be able to place their trust and confidence in the identity of the other party, as well as in the integrity of any electronic messages received, to ensure that they have not been altered. Identification and authentication via an electronic signature provide both parties with assurances concerning the identity and the integrity of the message. From a legal perspective, the role of legislation in this context is to offer the necessary guarantees of a secure and trustworthy online transaction. This can be achieved through the recognition of electronic signatures and regulating the certification of service providers. This paper will consider the different forms of electronic signatures which exist, and the present legislation in Nigeria which deals with their recognition. It will also examine the legal effects and the adequacy of the present legal framework. Finally, it will conclude by discussing how the legislature in Nigeria can improve the present framework to meet the current international legal and technological standards which would enhance the validity and enforceability of electronic contracts that have been executed using electronic signatures by parties within Nigeria.
Keywords: Electronic Commerce, Electronic Contract, Law of Contract, digital signature, electronic signature
A Critical Analysis of the Validity and Enforceability of Electronic Contract in Nigeria: Need for Reforms (Published)
Technology revolution is always an ongoing process that introduces new challenges time to time to traditional means of doing things. One of the revolutions is in the area of commercial and contractual transaction is the rise of electronic contracts. This paper tackles the impact of the technology revolution in the general and the use of the Internet in particular on the formation, validity and enforcement of electronic contracts. It tackles the subject matter on a comparative basis and tries to answer whether or not the traditional contract law rules could handle the challenges, particularly due to the dearth of statutory legislation to clarify some of the issues and challenges. To conclude, almost all transactions and contracts, including first group as mentioned above, can be done in electronic form, but the validity of second group depends on the type of formalities.
Keywords: Electronic Commerce, Electronic Contract, Law of Contract
A Legal Review of Asserting Jurisdiction in Cross-Border Electronic Commerce Disputes Adjudication in the European Union (Published)
As electronic-commerce becomes cross-border transaction, Questions about which country’s court has the competent jurisdiction to adjudicate cross border electronic commerce disputes are been asked. Countries need to have the capacity to guarantee the protection of local organizations. Be that as it may, asserting jurisdiction in adjudicating over online business transactions is vital in this protection. Despite the numerous researches on electronic-commerce disputes adjudication, it is interesting to know that there is limited empirical evidence that shows how and why parties choose a particular jurisdiction in an event of a disputes adjudication. This paper critically examines and review the current legal administrative rules and regulations adopted by the European Union in asserting jurisdiction in E-commerce disputes adjudication. It also outlined the shortcoming of the European Union approach and the recommendation on how to evacuate this shortcoming in asserting jurisdiction in cross border E-commerce disputes adjudication.
Keywords: Electronic Commerce, asserting jurisdiction, dispute adjudication, the eu