Evidentiary Value of Electronic Commercial Ledgers under Yemeni Law

Abstract

Maintaining commercial books is one of the fundamental legal obligations imposed on merchants. With the rapid technological developments of the modern era and the emergence of electronic commerce, traditional manners of maintaining commercial books have been significantly affected, contributing to the rise of electronic commercial records as a means suited to the nature of contemporary commercial transactions. Accordingly, this study examines the evidentiary value of electronic commercial records under Yemeni law, and to clarify how they may be invoked before the courts as an alternative to traditional commercial books regulated by the Yemeni legislator under Commercial Law No. (32) of 1991, particularly in light of the development of commercial systems, the implementation of computers in transactions, and the enactment of the Law on Payment Systems and Electronic Financial and Banking Transactions No. (40) of 2006, which confers evidentiary value of electronic documents. The present study concludes that Yemeni law recognizes the evidentiary value of electronic commercial records, provided that certain conditions are met, placing them on an equal footing with traditional paper-based commercial ledgers.