Author: Scotland: Scottish Law Commission

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2013-04-25

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13: 9780108882708

This report, further to a Discussion Paper on Formation of Contract published in March 2012 (ISBN 9780108882630) undertaken as part of the Eighth Programme of Law Reform, looks at the specific difficulties of "execution in counterpart". The phrase describes the process by which parties to a formal document intended to have effect (e.g. as a contract) may be able to apply their respective signatures to it (execution) to make it binding without having to meet to do so or, indeed, having all to sign the same physical copy of the document. The main recommendations are: a document may be validly executed under Scots law by parties subscribing a counterpart of the document remotely from each other and then each delivering their subscribed counterpart to the other parties; delivery may be to a person nominated for the purpose rather than to the other parties; delivery of a traditional document may be effected by electronic means; a document takes effect either when each and every party has subscribed and delivered its counterpart, or at such later date as parties may agree; where all parties sign their counterpart in self-proving form, the document as a whole is self-proving; if desired, a "registration copy" of a document may be compiled by making up a single version which includes the signing pages from each of the counterparts; the reforms will not affect any document executed before they come into statutory force