Creating the Legal Framework for Information and Communications Technology Development: The Example of E-Signature Legislation in Emerging Market Economies

James X. Dempsey
Additional contact information
James X. Dempsey: Center for Democracy and Technology 1634 I Street NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20006, Global Internet Policy Initiative, Washington, DC,

Information Technologies and International Development, 2003, vol. 1, issue 2, 39-52

Abstract: This article examines the role of e-signature laws in creating the legal frame-work for e-commerce in developing and transitional countries. It argues that an early focus on electronic signature laws can be a distraction from more important reforms necessary to support e-commerce and information and communications technology development (notably telecommunications liberal-ization, support for entrepreneurship, transparency, banking reform). The article outlines an incremental legal reform strategy for emerging economies to address the issues surrounding electronic documents and e-signatures, and it recommends as an initial step legal reform that recognizes contracts entered into by businesses that have agreed by traditional means to technical standards for electronic contracts. For e-government applications, this article suggests steps governments may take to experiment with authentication systems (including possibly digital signatures). It recommends that govern-ments hesitate before setting up regulatory systems to license technologies or service providers for e-commerce. Furthermore, it identifies broader lessons for those interested in legal reforms to support growth of the Internet as a component of development, stressing the importance of basing legal reform efforts on a sensitive analysis of local needs and actual business practices. (c) 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Information Technologies and International Development.

Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/154475203322981950 link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tpr:itintd:v:1:y:2003:i:2:p:39-52

Access Statistics for this article

Information Technologies and International Development is currently edited by Ernest J. Wilson III and Michael L. Best

More articles in Information Technologies and International Development from MIT Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by The MIT Press ().