MINUTES OF THE ABA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SECTION'S ELECTRONIC COMMERCE PAYMENT COMMITTEE MEETING, AUGUST 3, 1997
The ECP Committee met in San Francisco on 8/03/97, during the ABA annual meeting. In attendance were Michael Baum (Verisign), Dirk Buikema (Motorola), Richard Field, Cathleen Judge (Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll), Wayne Lew (Jackson, Tufts, Cole & Black), John Muller (Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison), Tom Smedinghoff (McBride Baker & Coles), Jane Winn (SMU), and Abdul Zindani (Law Student Division liaison).
After introductions, the meeting focused on the Committee's planned study on electronic negotiability. A good discussion ranged from traditional attributes of negotiability, to whether electronic mechanisms could leverage and take advantage of existing understood concepts, to the extent negotiability was necessary or desirable in promoting electronic commerce. It was agreed that a working group should be established to prepare a white paper on the topic, with goals to include clarifying the novel issues arising in an electronic environment, and developing an appropriate legal model or models for the various types of instruments and documents of title. The group considered possible publication of the white paper in Jurimetrics, on the Committee's web page, or as a stand alone document. Jane Winn (and I) agreed to develop a preliminary framework. Abdul Zindani agreed to solicit the Law Student Division for additional assistance on the project.
A dedicated, closed List Serve is in the process of being set up by ABA staff. Committee members who have indicated an interest in participating on the working group will be added to the List Serve, and will interact periodically with the entire ECP list for discussion and progress reports.
The ECP Committee will meet again in Washington, D.C., tentatively on Saturday, October 18, 1997, in conjunction with the next 3-day meeting of the ABA Science and Technology Section's Information Security Committee, chaired by Michael Baum.
We are seeking a volunteer to update the Committee web page (http://www.abanet.org/scitech/ec/home.html), so that it might be a more useful resource to ECP members and the electronic commerce payment legal community. Please contact me (field@pipeline.com) or Dale Juffernbruch if you are interested.
- Richard Field