Contracts Negotiated Online
There's an analysis of the business and legal ramifications of negotiating by email over at law.com. They point out the cultural losses of negotiating a deal from remote. That assumes that in-person communications by people from different cultural backgrounds go smoothly; basic social science tells us that is not always the case. On the other hand, anyone who has read an email and tried to figure out whether the author was being sarcastic can see another problem with negotiating by email: it loses the emphasis on key points. That may be the largest impact on litigating a dispute over a contract negotiated by email - barring industry standards or a prior course of conduct between the parties, any court can look to the emails to effectively look over the shoulders of the parties.