The Form and Effectiveness of Electronic Arbitration Agreement Abstract The legal character of an electronic arbitration agreement, in its nature, is identified as one dispute resolution mechanism chosen by the parties concerned. Nonetheless, an electronic arbitration agreement differs from the traditional arbitration agreement. It is one kind of electronic document, formed through the method of electronic data interchange and evidencing the existence and content of arbitration agreement among the parties concerned. As the originating point of an arbitration procedure, adequate emphasis should be put upon the identification of the validity of an electronic arbitration agreement. Once the validity of an electronic arbitration agreement is confirmed, the following legal procedure could be carried out, the necessary legal acts might be generated and the relevant legal consequences could be expected. This article will conduct an analysis upon the formality requirements and substantial elements of an electronic arbitration agreement, with the intent of identifying the validity of an electronic arbitration agreement from the legal perspective. The first part of this article provides a straightforward introduction in relation to the current practice of identifying the validity of an electronic arbitration agreement in domestic, elaborates the various arguments (whether positive, negative or neutral) put forward by domestic scholars with respect to the subject matter and lists out the analysis scope and research methods adopted by the author with respect to this article. In the second part of this article, by reference to the requirements of a traditional arbitration agreement, the author provides an analysis upon the formality requirements of an electronic arbitration agreement, basically including two main parts, the written requirement and the execution requirement. It is observed that, by way of legislation, the interpretation to the scope of written requirement is continuously expanding; and with respect to the execution requirement, the standard becomes less difficult to be achieved due to the ever-changing technical development. The third part of this article mainly addresses the topic of the substantial elements of an electronic arbitration agreement, including the identification of the subject qualification of the parties concerned, the consensus among the parties concerned and the legality of the arbitration arrangement. The latter chapter is the focus of this article. When the effectiveness of the electronic arbitration agreement is expounded, the special cases of the electronic arbitration agreement is discussed, and the validity of the electronic arbitration agreement is discussed from the evidence and fairness of the electronic arbitration agreement. The flaw of the evidence of electronic arbitration agreement is mainly reflected in the lack of "original", so we will discuss the effectiveness of the agreement by introducing of technical means and third-party certification mechanism with the comparison of various circumstances. Because the electronic arbitration agreement may be invalid because of the lack of fairness, and this article is mainly to protect the consumer's position, consumers may be suffering unfair treatment and loss their benefits when they are using the e-commerce. So, this paper argues that if there is a significant unfairness between the operator and the consumer, then consumers can be given a certain right to deny the validity of the electronic arbitration agreement to protect their interests. Of course, not all unfair situations deny the validity of the electronic arbitration agreement, and denying its effectiveness is not just protect the consumer, but to find a balance between the both to minimize the loss. The final conclusion is a summary of the full text, and it acknowledge the important position of the electronic arbitration agreement in the modern international commercial transactions, and also agree that the effectiveness of the arbitration agreement will be an inevitable trend in the development of e- commerce. Key words: electronic arbitration agreement, formal requirements, essential elements

论电子仲裁协议的形式和效力 摘要 电子仲裁协议的法律属性是当事人所选择的、解决争议和纠纷的一种方式， 但其又不同于传统的仲裁协议，它是当事人之间通过电子数据交换形成的，能够 证明当事人仲裁协议的存在以及仲裁协议内容的电子文件。在整个仲裁程序的过程中，电子仲裁协议的效力认定是重点环节，因为它是启动整个仲裁程序的源头， 一旦电子仲裁协议生效，就会开启相应的法律程序，产生必要的法律行为，并且获得最终的法律结果。本文旨在从电子仲裁协议的形式要和实质要件出发，在法律上将电子仲裁协议有效性得以确认。 文章的第一部分开门见山地介绍了现在电子仲裁协议的效力认定在我国的现状，介绍了学者们认为其有效、无效或者中立的原因，并且介绍了本文的研究 范围和研究方法。第二部分开始，根据传统意义上仲裁协议的要求，分析电子仲 裁协议生效所需要的形式要件，主要包括对书面形式的要求和对签署的要求。一 方面，通过立法，使书面形式的解释逐渐扩大，另一方面，技术手段的提高，为电子仲裁协议的签署要求提供技术支持。第三部分对网上仲裁协议的实质有效性作出分析，包括当事人主体资格的确定、当事人之间的合意以及仲裁内容的合法性。后一章是本文的重点，在阐述电子仲裁协议的效力时，针对电子仲裁协议的特殊性，从电子仲裁协议的证据力和公平性着手，讨论电子仲裁协议各种具体情 况下的效力问题。电子仲裁协议证据力的瑕疵主要体现在对“原件”的缺失上， 通过各种情况的对比，阐述在引入技术手段和第三方认证机制后，协议的效力问 题。对电子仲裁协议可能因为公平性的缺失而导致无效的情况，本文主要站在保护消费者的立场，考虑在电子商务中，消费者可能会受到的不公平的待遇以及因为电子仲裁协议生效而受到的利益损失，所以本文认为，如果经营者与消费者之间存在显著的不公平，那么可以赋予消费者一定的权利，否定电子仲裁协议的有 效性，从而保障其利益。当然，并不是所有不公平的情况都会否认电子仲裁协议的效力，而且否定其效力并不是一味地偏袒消费者，而是尽可能在经营者和消费者之间寻找一个平衡点，达到损失最小化。最后的结语部分是对全文观点的一个 总结，承认电子仲裁协议在现代国际商事交易中的重要地位，并且认为承认电子 仲裁协议的效力将是电子商务发展的一个必然趋势。 关键字：电子仲裁协议，形式要件，实质要件