writing, or piece of paper. Consequently, the issue understandably arises as the ability to satisfy these record retention requirements in an electronic environment. As with the requirements of form, a liberalising approach would be to accept electronic records provided they exhibit similar capabilities to those of traditional paper documents. So, for example, the message need not be retained unaltered as long as the information stored accurately reflects the information that was sent. Since electronic messages are often decoded, compressed or converted prior to storage, it would not be appropriate to require that information should be stored unaltered. Closely related to national record-keeping requirements, an important issue in electronic commerce is whether, if a dispute were to arise, a court of law or tribunal in a jurisdiction would permit the proof of a fact through a data message? Under evidential rules in most jurisdictions, a distinction is made between: • Whether the document can be submitted into court as evidence (the question of ‘admissibility’) and • Whether the document will be considered good evidence of the facts it records (the question of evidential weight). A number of jurisdictions have a highly formalised and strict system of evidentiary admissibility. Some require that evidence presented in a court of law must be in the form of a notarised document. Other countries impose a burden upon the party adducing the computer-derived evidence into court to show that the systems from which the evidence was derived were ‘operating properly’; sometime a difficult threshold to meet, potentially requiring the use of numerous experts to explain to a court the technical aspects of each component of the system. To ensure that a party may be able to enforce its legal rights embodied in an electronic contract, such jurisdictions must provide for the admissibility of electronic evidence, such as electronic copies or printouts of electronic evidence, in its electronic transactions legislation. One aspect of admissibility which arises in some common law legal systems is the concept of ‘best evidence’. ‘Best evidence’ generally requires that a party adduce the best evidence available to it, i.e. an original should be submitted rather than a copy. This historic rule has generated some legal uncertainty in respect of data messages, since the concept of an ‘original’ has little meaning in an electronic commerce environment. Express provision may therefore state that electronic evidence such not be inadmissible if it is the best evidence that the party adducing it could be reasonably be expected to produce. Having established the admissibility of electronic evidence, the second question is the weight to be given to the evidence. Legislative provision may list factors that a court should use in assessing the evidential weight, such as the reliability of the manner in which the data message was generated, stored or communicated, the integrity of the information contained in the data message was maintained, and the manner in which the originator of the data message is identified. In some jurisdictions, standards have been developed for the secure operation of electronic systems, designed to facilitate their use as evidence in the event of a dispute. 10