Re: Governing an information society - 3/4

[Jason W Solinsky <solman@MIT.EDU>]

> There may also be 'civil' suits in cyberspace. Due to digitally signed, 
> undeniable contracts, these should be reduced to only those that involve a
> breach of contract, rather than a suspicion of invalidity.

I think that even this will be mitigated dramatically. In an information
economy there are relatively low bariers to obtaining cost information. I
would therefore expect cyberspatial contracts to ALWAYS have a breach clause 
built in. It is always possible that something isn't going to go right and
a breach will occur. With the superior cost information available in
cyberspace, it should make sense to include detailed information on the
costs of a breach to the various parties. This reduces the cost of
adjudication and enables both parties to more precisely hedge the risks
they take as they enter into the agreement.

JWS