THE EVIDENTIAL WEIGHT OF THE ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT UNDER JORDANIAN LAW: AN OVERALL COMMENT

It is submitted that electronic commerce has become factual truth as it creates legal relations among persons, whether they are natural or juristic persons. It has become an important part of internal and international trade when merchants negotiate and conclude contracts without regard to their place of residence. The conventional written document which is deemed the most important instrument that performs an evidential role in conventional contracts is disappearing in this cyberspace commerce. This phenomenon has led to the generating of an alternative instrument, which is the electronic document that performs the same evidential role as the conventional document. This article analyses the evidential weight of the electronic document in Jordanian Law and the extent to which this document satisfies the basic requirements to achieve its evidential role. It also discusses the simultaneous extent of compliance of Jordanian Electronic Transaction Law (JETL) to the international criteria and the internal conventional criteria.