ABSTRACT
Many provisions of Transnational Commercial Law dealing with the digital commerce seek to extend the application of existing measures to the digital realm by deploying the functional equivalence principle. This principle is used to identify how legal rules developed in the context of physical transacting can be applied in the digital context, and thus favours continuity over the development of tailored rules. It is argued that the reliance on functional equivalence reflects a particular mindset about how law should respond to technological development, and that the every-increasing growth of digital commerce and digital automation of contracting might put the principle under too much strain.
Twigg-Flesner, Christian, Contract Automation – Is Functional Equivalence Enough? (February 28, 2024). To be published in: Bruno Zeller and Camilla Baasch Andersen (eds), Routledge Handbook on Transnational Commercial Law (Routledge, due 2025) (forthcoming).
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