(kontumtv.vn) – Last weekend, at the headquarters of the United Nations (UN) in New York, the Committee on Legal Affairs of the UN General Assembly (Committee 6) held a plenary session and unanimously adopted a Resolution chaired by Vietnam on the Model Law on Automated Contracts drafted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

Photo caption
View of the plenary session of Committee 6. Photo: Quang Huy/VNA correspondent in the US

According to a VNA correspondent in New York, the Model Law on Automated Contracts was drafted by the UNCITRAL Working Group on Electronic Commerce in 2022 and will be completed in July 2024. It includes framework provisions on definitions, conditions of validity, enforcement obligations and legal issues related to contracts established through automated systems. The Resolution of Committee 6 together with the Model Law will be submitted to the UN General Assembly for consideration and approval next December. After being approved by the UN General Assembly, according to the provisions of the Resolution, the UN Secretary-General will publish and widely disseminate the Model Law along with legislative guidance documents, creating a basis for countries to refer to and internalize the provisions of this Model Law in the process of promulgating and amending domestic laws on e-commerce. The resolution also calls on UN agencies, international and regional organizations to continue to coordinate with UNCITRAL in legal activities to jointly promote consistency in the development and harmonization of national laws in the field of e-commerce.

Along with many model laws previously developed by UNCITRAL such as the Model Law on e-commerce, electronic signatures and electronic transfer records, the Model Law on Automated Contracts is one of the UN's new efforts to support countries in perfecting their legal systems to regulate new forms of commercial transactions, effectively addressing new legal challenges, and at the same time, making the most of the opportunities brought about by the automation process and the application of artificial intelligence in commercial transactions, helping to form a fair and transparent legal framework for e-commerce.

Vietnam's successful coordination of the drafting of the Resolution on the Model Law on Automated Contracts and its adoption by consensus by Committee 6 reflects the timeliness of the Resolution and the broad support of countries for the Model Law. This also demonstrates our country's proactive and substantial contribution in its role as a member of UNCITRAL (term 2019-2025) to the UN's common efforts in developing, harmonizing and implementing international trade law, and at the same time contributes to Vietnam's re-election as a member of UNCITRAL (term 2025-2031) at the election on November 20 with a high number of votes of 175/183.

Thanh Tuan (Vietnam News Agency)