TRANSFORMATION OF CONTRACT FORM REQUIREMENTS BASED ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

The article deals with the main issues of improving the Russian civil laws concerning the form of transaction the majority of which are associated with the adoption of the Federal Law of March 18, 2019, No. 34-FZ «On Amendments to Parts I, II and Article 1124 of Part III of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.» The adoption of amendments mentioned above was preconditioned by the implementation of the federal project «Normative Regulation of the Digital Environment» within the framework of the National Program «Digital Economy of the Russian Federation.» The author highlights similarity of approaches perceived by the Russian law-maker with the provisions of international instruments, in particular the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce of 1996 and the UN Convention on «The Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts» 2005. It is concluded that, as a result of transformation of requirements for the form of contracts, 2 main variations of written form (a single document signed by the parties, and exchange of documents) and 2 basic fictions of this form (accepting by conduct of a written offer and making a transaction by electronic or other technical means) have been approved.