If this further stage occurs, the general secretariat of the UN will write to all member countries asking them to take note of the recommendation and inviting countries to adopt it. From a European perspective, the European Commission would need to consider whether the subject matter is within their competence to act and, if it is, to prepare an appropriate legislative instrument, such as a directive. European Union member states would then be obliged to implement the directive. The remainder of this section discusses these problems in more detail. The laws of the major trading nations generally recognize a wide range of commercial transactions as being valid and enforceable without a specific requirement to reduce them to a written form.
Oral agreements are legally efficacious, even if vulnerable evidentially.
For these types of transactions, electronic commerce would be appropriate. In other areas, the existence of a writing can confer certain legal advantages to a party, by establishing an evidential presumption. Contracts above a certain value do need to be in writing in the United States. Generally speaking, invoices, delivery notes, and other commercial documents of that nature need not be in writing for what concerns transactions between private parties. Computerized accounting records are accepted by tax authorities in certain countries, but typically only if the computer system satisfies certain formal requirements specified by the tax administration.