Alan Davidson

Dr Davidson has been a member of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group IV (Electronic Commerce) since May 2014. The Working Group meets twice per year for 5 days alternating between New York and Vienna. The Working Group drafts and completes texts including Conventions, Model laws, Legislative texts, and commentaries. The Working Groups comprises 72 elected nations (including Australia) and Observers from other nations and NGOs. In my time with the Working Group we have completed: the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (2017), Notes on the main issues of cloud computing contracts (2019), the UNCITRAL Model Law on the Use and Cross-border Recognition of Identity Management and Trust Services (2022) and the Taxonomy of legal issues related to the digital economy (2023). We are currently working on a Model Law on Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Contracting. I represent Australia at the Woking Group and since 2022 have been the Vice Chair of the Working Group. During this time, I have made multiple contributions to the drafting, enhancing concepts, principles and have propose specific text for incorporation into the works; the majority of which have been incorporated into the final texts. In turn, the texts have been adopted and incorporated into the law of several nations. The legislation in several nations clearly includes the input and wording of Dr Davidson, in the laws. Dr Davidson’s contributions in this forum have impacted the actual laws on the countries that have incorporated these texts and will continue to do so for countries which subsequently adopt these texts, and future texts.

UNCITRAL has requested that I attended contribute to conferences, and seminars on their behalf to assist in the dissemination of UNCITRAL work and principles. For example The 60th anniversary UNCITRAL Conference and Celebration held in Delhi, India in 2017 (Speakers included the President of India and the Chief Justice of India; and Dr Davidson. Trade Seminars in South Korea (2014), the Philippines (2017), online during COVID (2021) and Hong Kong (2023).

In 2023, Dr Davidson was requested by the UNCITRAL to provide Technical Assistance to the Government of the nation state Tuvalu in the field of Electronic Commerce legislation. Having attended all UNCITRAL Electronic Commerce Working Groups sessions since 2014, I have made contributions and gained insights into the latest texts of the Working Group. I assisted in drafting the Tuvalu Electronic Transactions legislation incorporating all earlier UNCITRAL texts. The UNCITRAL texts are considered to be the prevailing global legislative model. It was a privilege to represent UNCITRAL in this project in presenting the legislation and Explanatory Memorandum to the Tuvalu Government in July 2023. The adoption of Tuvalu of the legislation of the UNCITRAL Convention will have impact on their international trade well into the future