Lesotho electronic transactions and electronic commerce bill 2013 an appraisal

Abstract

Technological innovations have significantly caused an unprecedented shift from the orthodox paper-based approach to a continuum of internet transactions. Technology redefined the status quo of traditional markets and resulted in the international community and territorial boundaries merging into one population of cyber citizens in the electronic commerce sphere. These new paradigms give rise to legal challenges which are precipitated by legal aspects of electronic commerce necessitating for the legal regulation. The 1996 United Nations Commission on International Trade Law on Electronic Commerce is a global legal framework for legislators. It seeks to address these issues by transposing common law requirements for validly concluded traditional contracts into cyber contracts in order to accord cyber contracts the same legal standing through functional equivalence approach. The Lesotho jurisdiction envisions to embrace this development through the envisaged Lesotho Electronic Transactions and Electronic Commerce Bill 2013. This study is the juxtaposition of the Lesotho Bill and the South Africa s Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 on electronic transactions provisions covering the legal recognition of electronic messages, time of contract formation, time and place of dispatch and receipt of communication, and the in writing and signature requirements which are applied in online contracts in order to meet the similar common law contract demands for paper based contracts. The interrogation should indicate whether there are any challenges occasioned by the Bill in electronic contracting, and the recommended solutions, considering lessons learned from the South Africa s ECT Act, and compliance with the best international practices.