action which invokes the employment of common law theories which are shown to impose difficulties in electronic contracting because they do not distinguish whether parties are inter praesentes or inter absentes.227 Article 15 (1) provides that unless otherwise agreed between the originator and the address, the dispatch of a data message occurs when it enters an information system outside the control of the originator, or of the person who sent the data message on behalf of the originator.228 A data message should not be considered to be dispatched if it merely reached the information system of the address but failed to enter it, according to Model Law’s notion of entry.229 Receipt of a data message is at the time when it enters a designated information system of the addressee, or at the time when the message is retrieved in the case of undesignated information system. 230 The Model Law regards a place of dispatch as the originator’s place of business. 231 2.5 CONCLUSION It was observed that the substantive common law requirements for a legally enforceable paper-based contract find application in electronic contracts through the Model Law. There are generally no formalities required for the conclusion of a valid contract, subject to some agreements mandated by statutory provisions to be reduced into writing in order to be valid. The Model Law’s key provisions on writing and signature set out a criteria on how these provisions can be functionally equivalent, and be legally recognised like paper-based contracts. Nonetheless, the Model Law offers no provision for the time of the conclusion of the contract, and leaves it open to legislators to decide on the appropriate theory of time of contract conclusion, based on the peculiar circumstance of each jurisdiction. The following chapter will entail an in-depth analysis of the Lesotho Electronic Transactions and Electronic Commerce Bill 2013, in comparison with Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 as aforementioned, in order to investigate how common law requirements for formation of contracts are applied, 227 Pistorius (2006: 178 at 196). Pistorius (2002: 129 at 147). 229 Pistorius (2002: 129 at 147). 230 Pistorius (2002: 129 at 147). 231 Pistorius (2002: 129 at 148). 228 26