Talk:Posting rule

The mailbox rule (called the "postal rule" or "postal acceptance rule" in the UK, Australia and New Zealand -- WHY OH WHY is Wikipedia US-centric?! It annoys me that when I search for Postal Rule, mailbox rule comes out! (end rant)

I, personally, am not familiar with the mailbox rule. I was curious if anybody knew if this was applicable to e-mail?

As far as technology goes, things have sped up since the first ruling on this case (1880) so I wonder if this has ever been tested in court regarding electronic mail, since it is relatively immediate.

It has not been tested. I personally think it depends on how the email is used. Sometimes it is used effectively instantaneously. Other times is is expected to be as slow as mail. The first case is regarded as being in 1818. Alan Davidson 23:14, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

In Entores v Miles Far East Corporation (Court of Appeal 1955) the English court of appeals held that in the case of instantaneous electronic communications (specifically telex), the time and place of the acceptance is when/where it is received by the other party. This was upheld by the House of Lords in Brinkibon v Stahag Stahl There seems to be no valid reason why it shouldn't apply to email. Thehappyhobo (talk) 12:47, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Brinkibon v Stahag Stahl was about a telex. The general principle stated from the case is that the rule does not apply to instantaneous communications. But, the court commented that sometimes a telex can be regarded as instantaneous and at other times it is not. It gave a threefold test, which can be briefly summarised as depending upon the "use" by the parties. Email can on occasions be effectively instantaneous. But on other occasions the parties "use" it just like mail. Alan Davidson (talk) 15:00, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Hong Kong Ordinance

I have deleted the Hong Kong Ordinance provision. The Hong Kong Ordinance in question, like many of the world's Electronic Transactions Acts, is based on the UNCITRAL Model Law of Electronic Commerce. However it is mistaken to suggest that it deals with an electronic clarification of the postal acceptance rule for electronic communications. First the ordinance was inaccurately quoted. For example the passage said "1. If the offeror designate an email address to receive the offer, then acceptance occur at the time when the email sent to this email address." But the Ordinance does not state when acceptance occurs. It provides that an electronic communication is sent when accepted by an information system. The word "accepted" does not mean acceptance in a contract sense. The Ordinance merely gives a default rule as to when electronic communication is sent and received. There are two schools of thought. ONE – Ask if the postal acceptance rule applies to emails (electronic communications). If your answer is YES, then the Electronic Transaction Acts (ETA) (and ordinance) can help. The rule states that there is a contract when posted – so we should apply the "sent" rule under the ETA. If the answer is NO, then either apply the received rule under the ETA or ignore it and use the contract rule of communication. TWO – Instead, treat the ETA as an intended substitute and statutory replacement of the postal acceptance rule; in which case the received rule should apply. The problem with this second school of thought, is that there is nothing in the Model Law of Electronic Commerce, nor the ETAs which suggests that it was intended to replace the postal acceptance rule. We are still waiting for a court to decide.Alan Davidson 06:46, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Rough Diagram

I deleted the rough digram because it was misleading. The part marked "acccepted" was not acceptance. Alan Davidson 02:32, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Electronic communications

There are two approaches. The first has two parts; but the order is to ask whether the postal acceptance rule applies and then (yes or no) apply the ETA. The second is to apply th ETA first as if it was written and intended to replace the postal acceptance rule. Alan Davidson (talk) 00:13, 16 December 2007 (UTC)