Vol 7 No 1 - Roger Williams University School of Law

Taking UCITA on the Road: WhatLessons Have We Learned?Amelia H. Boss *INTRODUCTIONIn 1999, with a great deal of fanfare, the National Conferenceof Commissioners on Uniform State Laws completed its work on anew statute designed to bring the Conference—and state law—into the new millennium: the Uniform Computer InformationTransactions Act or UCITA. Two years and two state enactmentslater, there are those who argue that UCITA should be the modelnot only for this country, but for other countries—and regionaland international policy makers—to adopt.Should UCITA be an international model? The answer tothat question is both “yes” and “no.” If one speaks of UCITA as aconcept—the concept that there is a need to address a type oftransaction whose use is increasing exponentially in importance intoday’s economy—the transfer of information by contract—thenthe answer is yes. If one views UCITA as standing for theproposition that a comprehensive and accessible body of lawcovering information contracts would add the predictability andcertainty desired by those engaged extensively in electroniccommerce, the answer is yes. And if one views UCITA as a“checklist” of issues that must be confronted in efforts to deal withnew information-based transactions (whether those efforts arethose of a practitioner in drafting a license or a legislatordetermining what issues to address next), the answer is again yes.Unfortunately, however, if one views UCITA as a specific bodyof law, to be enacted substantially as is with little reevaluation,reexamination and reassessment of its provisions (especially in*Charles Klein Professor of Law, Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law.237