text: longer anobstacle tothedevelopment ofEDI. "InothermemberStateswherenospecific legislation onelectronic documents hasbeenpassed andwheretherequirement ofawriting for evidentiary purposes isnotamandatory rule,private EDInetworks have developed andshouldbeabletocontinue todevelop inthefuture, provided thatagreements, whichcouldtaketheformofgeneral conditions applying toallindividual transactions concluded withinthenetwork, contained anappropriate provision thattherecordofthetransactions wouldbeadmitted asevidence. " Ananalysis ofthelawofevidence in'continental' legalsystems showsthattheruleofthesignedwriting required asevidence ofalegal acthasverylargeexceptions whichmakeitrarelyapplicable toEDI economic transactions. Therequirement ofawriting forevidentiary purposes incivillawcountries wouldleadtodifficulties onlyinthe fieldsofcredit(particularly consumer credit) andinsurance, sincean insurance contract whichhasnotbeenagreeduponinwriting can generally notbeasserted against theinsurance company." 23/,•A/CN.9/333 English Page11 (b)Evidence incommonlawcountries 36.TheTEDISstudy24/statesthatinthecommonlaw,therulesofevidence thathaveadirect impacton EDIarethe"hearsay evidence rule"andthe"best evidence rule". According tothehearsay evidence rule,subject tocertain exceptions, adocument isnotadmissible asevidence forthepurpose of proving thetruthofthematters statedinthedocument. According tothe bestevidence rule,onlytheoriginal documents shouldbepresented as evidence. 25/Asincivillawcountries, thereisgeneral agreement thata computer printout isnotanoriginal. Bothofthoserulesintheirpureform wouldbeserious obstacles totheincreasing useofEDI.Toovercome themin theUnited Kingdom, section 5ofthe1968CivilEvidence Actexpressly allowed theuseofcomputer printouts asevidence. 37.Thegeneral conclusion oftheTEDISstudyonevidence inlitigation was that,whiletherewerenomajorobstacles tothedevelopment ofEDIincivil lawcountries, andtherefore noneedforfundamental changes oftherules,the commonlawcountries showedtheoretical difficulties whichmadeitnecessary toadoptstatutory lawtomeettheneedsofEDI. (c)Evidence inaccounting andtaxlaw 38.Theconclusions oftheTEDISstudy26/areverydifferent asregards the requirement ofawriting foraccounting ortaxpurposes. 39.Insome member States, suchasLuxembourg, legislation hasbeenrevised soastoadmitaccounting records tobekeptexclusively oncomputers andto admitcomputer storage ofdocuments ordataonwhichaccounting records ora taxdeclaration isbased. Insomeothers, suchasBelgium, difficulties arising fromtherequirement ofawriting havebeensolvedbypublic authorities through codified administrative tolerance. Insomeothermember States, suchasItaly,legislation authorizes individual agreements tobe concluded withthepublicauthorities permitting oneorbothofthosetwouses ofthecomputer. 40.InsomeStateswherenosuchsolutions havebeenimplemented, the obligation tokeepwritten accounting records ortheobligation tomaintain supporting dataexclusively onpaperconstitutes anobstacle tothe development ofcontract formation orimplementation through EDI.Forexample, inDanish law,nogeneral ruledetermines theformofaninvoice. Therefore, aninvoice canbevalidly transmitted byelectronic means. However, thedata thatissupposed tobeevidenced bytheinvoice canbetakenintoaccount, according totherulesonaccounting andtax,onlyifapaperoriginal ora certified copyofthepaperoriginal iskept. UnderFrenchlaw,asimilar practical obligation todeliver written invoices results frompricecontrol regulation • 41.Inmostlegalsystems wheredocuments canbekeptonmicrofilm orcanbe computer recorded, thepaperoriginals mustgenerally bekeptforacertain periodoftimeandthecomputer documents mustatalltimesbeavailable and capable ofbeingreproduced inhumanreadable formthrough aprinting device. TheTEDISstudydoesnotmakeitclearwhether thoselegalsystems distinguish between acopyoftheentiredocument (including, forinstance, manuscript signatures), obtained byrecording itindigital formandasimple reproduction ofthecontents oftheoriginal document obtained byre-keying thetextintoacomputer.A/CN.9/333 English Page12 C. The reportoftheAmerican BarAssociation 27/
analysis: The text appears to discuss the legal and regulatory framework surrounding the use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in various countries. It highlights the need for harmonization of laws and regulations to facilitate the development and use of EDI in different sectors, such as commerce, accounting, and taxation. The text also touches on the difficulties and obstacles faced by EDI in different legal systems, particularly in common law countries.