Some of the features of the conclusion of civil-law contracts in electronic form and the problematic aspects of liability for breach of its terms

The article deals with issues that are currently relevant to conclude contracts in electronic form. As you know, until recently, transactions were concluded between subjects of civil law relations only in the classically established forms: oral and written. However, the global development of information technologies, primarily the Internet, has a certain impact on legal institutions, including the Institute of contract law. One of the manifestations of this influence is the ability to conclude transactions in electronic form. The electronic form of a transaction in Russian civil circulation has recently been recognized as a form of securing contractual relations. At the same time, the analysis of Russian civil legislation shows that despite its practical recognition and application by legal entities, the electronic form of recording contractual relations has not yet found its legislative consolidation. The norms of the Civil code of the Russian Federation operate only in oral and written forms of transactions. However, judicial practice recognizes documents (including contracts) concluded in electronic form as a source of evidence in disputed cases. Such legal conflicts naturally have a negative impact on law enforcement practice. From a practical point of view, the possibility of concluding an agreement in electronic form, of course, has a number of advantages, the main of which is the ability to reach an agreement on its essential terms and formalize it remotely, that is, without the need for personal presence of the parties to the agreement according to the formula "here and now". And this advantage naturally affects the demand for this form. We believe that in the future, this form of fixing contractual relations will not only be widely used in the practice of subjects of civil legal relations, but will also replace the other main one - the usual written one. In the final part of the article, the author formulates a number of conclusions and offers practical recommendations for making the electronic form of contract conclusion official and normative, that is, fixing it in the norms of the Civil code of the Russian Federation. In particular, it is proposed to amend article 158 and 434 of the RF Civil code, that is to legally enshrine the notion of the contract in electronic form and the electronic form itself, as one of the varieties of forms of transactions in the civil law of the Russian Federation.

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