Whats the law - emails and contracts

[choi2000]

can a leagal contract be formed by email between austrailia and UK? what counrtys law is used?

[lisaj]

The problem is that email can be very easily faked as coming from any source and any address. As such I can't imagine a situation where a contract could be reliably formed using it. However, technologies such as PGP encryption would help this. With regards to which country's law would apply, I'm not sure... My guess would be that the two parties would abide by the law applicable in their own country, and that the extent to which contract obligations and breaches are dealt with would be clearly defined from day one in the contract itself. However, you're better off asking an expert in international business and contract law...

[RyanTK3]

Unfortunatly this is one case where and extension of the RIP act would be beneficial as the email would be stored with relivant source and destination intact as it reached an ISP/Upstream that kept the logging for 5 years by law.. I don't know what country's law would apply but if the UK government held proof of its source and destination I think that it would at least get heard as evidence.