Evidentiary Challenges in Electronic Agreements in Digital Economic Transactions: Reconstructing Legal Certainty and the Protection of the Parties

Abstract

Digital transformation has fundamentally reshaped contractual relationships, particularly in digital economic transactions. Electronic agreements offer efficiency and convenience but also raise evidentiary challenges concerning party authentication, document integrity, electronic signatures, system reliability, and transaction traceability. This study examines the legal position and evidentiary strength of electronic agreements in digital economic transactions. It proposes a reconstruction of evidentiary mechanisms to strengthen legal certainty and protect the parties. Using normative juridical research with statutory, conceptual, and case approaches, the study analyzes Indonesian legal regulations and the development of electronic evidence in civil proceedings. The findings show that Indonesian law recognizes electronic information and electronic documents as legally valid evidence. However, their evidentiary strength depends on establishing the authenticity, integrity, reliability, and traceability of electronic transactions. Accordingly, this study proposes a Four-Parameter Reconstruction Model comprising Authentication, Integrity, System Reliability, and Transaction Traceability. The model provides an integrated framework for verifying the identity and authority of contracting parties, maintaining document integrity, assessing system reliability, and establishing verifiable transaction trails. The study concludes that the model can strengthen evidentiary mechanisms, legal certainty, balanced party protection, trust, and efficiency in the digital economy.