Talk:Mailbox rule

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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)

[edit] 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)