Formal Aspects of Digital Commerce - Introduction

Electronic commerce has completed the transition from utopian vision to veritable economic reality. The United Kingdom’s Department of Trade and Industry recently estimated that the current value of electronic commerce worldwide is US$12 billion per annum, and that this figure would rise to $350500 billion by 2002.1 Early in the next century, the Internet may become the primary means of distributing software and providing a wide range of information services, as well as an important marketplace for buying and selling consumer goods. Unsurprisingly, the rapid growth of ecommerce has encouraged a corresponding rise in proposals for its regulation.