ICT AND LAW REFORM

Building capacity on legal aspects of e-commerce

In response to its Members’ requests for training and capacity building in the area of legal aspects of e-commerce, UNCTAD is offering a wide range of capacity building and advisory services aimed at the preparation of an enabling legal and regulatory environment for e-commerce.

UNCTAD's technical assistance includes the organization and delivery of training activities and the provision of policy advice. [See events.]

1. Organisation and delivery of a training course on the legal aspects of e-commerce

The objective is to train and enable lawmakers and government officials in various issues under consideration when drafting e-commerce laws. The training course also targets entrepreneurs who wish to venture into e-commerce operations and who are not familiar with the legal environment for e-commerce.

Programme outline:
Module 1: Regulating e-commerce
Module 2: The legal validity of data messages
Module 3: Consumer protection and e-commerce
Module 4: Protecting intellectual property assets
Module 5: Content regulation
Module 6: Taxing e-commerce
Module 7: Privacy online 
Module 8: Securing e-commerce 

2. Policy advice

As part of its work on ICT policies, UNCTAD helps in:

  • Assessing the needs for law reform in the light of the current state of e-commerce development of beneficiary countries;
  • Preparing comparative reviews of cyber legislation in developing regions;
  • Drafting electronic commerce legislations based, in part, on international model laws;
  • Creating awareness on legal issues of interest to developing countries by publishing analytical studies on legal issues in its annual Information Economy Report (IER), formerly named E-Commerce and Development Report (ECDR).
     >> Read more about UNCTAD e-commerce publications
UNCTAD reference research on ICT and legal issues:
UNCTAD/DTL/STICT/2009/1

Estudio sobre las perspectivas de la armonización de la ciberlegislación en América Latina

IER 2007-2008 Harmonizing cyber legislation at the regional level: the case of the ASEAN
IER 2006: Laws and contracts in an e-commerce environment
IER 2005: Protecting the Information Society: Addressing the Phenomenon of Cybercrime
ECDR 2004: Protecting Privacy Rights in an Online World
ECDR 2003: Domain Name System and Issues for Developing Countries
ECDR 2002: Online Dispute Resolution
ECDR 2001: Overview of Selected Legal and Regulatory Developments in E-commerce

Contributing to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

The WSIS Geneva Plan of Action calls upon governments to act as model users and early adopters of e-commerce in accordance with their level of socio-economic development. More broadly, confidence and security are recognized to be among the main pillars of the information society. In the context of the information economy, a transparent and comprehensive regulatory framework is an essential precondition for the benefits of e-commerce to materialize.

The Tunis Agenda for the Information Society (November 2005) recommends considering issues which are relevant to ICT for development and which have so far not received adequate attention, such as activities related to ICT-related institutional reform and enhanced capacity on legal and regulatory frameworks. One of the key policy pillars of an information-based economy is the formulation and enforcement of legislations and regulations. The main objective of an e-commerce law reform is to ensure trust between commercial partners and facilitate the conduct of domestic as well as international trade by regulating the use of ICTs and offering legal protection for users and providers of e-commerce services in the global market.

Requesting UNCTAD assistance

Developing countries that would like to receive technical assistance on e-commerce law reform should send an email to ICT4D@unctad.org.