The impact of electronic commerce on international relations as a purchasing and communication mechanism is remarkable. A boom that leads us to consider that we are facing a material source that is significantly influenced by customs law and, in addition, gives way to a new era that requires a renaissance of the "customs legal system. This renaissance is not enough with mere modifications of the procedural regulations but requires a new system in terms of customs law to regulate this new commercial relationship between people around the world.
Since its inception, customs operational mechanization, where the basis for exercising such action in order to regulate the entry and/or exit of merchandise was based on the written declaration and physical support of a fiscal control, was evolving, until reaching the introduction of computer systems when complying with the declarations and controls.
These changes introduced due to the need to incorporate a computer system to customs destinations have led to the need for legal interpretation due to the effects of the acts produced by these computer systems and which necessarily had to be combined with the normative order that did not contain these new customs operating forms in the Argentine Customs Code of 1981.
Jurisprudence has been used to fill some of these gaps, leading to changes in the Customs Code itself in 2005, through Law 25.986, which incorporates the computerized declaration as well as its effects in articles 234; 332; 225 and CC of Law 22.415.
However, even though these additions to the Customs Code have taken place, the computer system has had such an evolution in foreign trade that it has had a great impact today, where the Internet is presented as a communication tool and a marketing area.
An area that generates possibilities for carrying out commercial transactions, agreements, means of payment and even being a channel for the entry/exit of goods.
Based on this, e-commerce could be seen as a new operational mechanism that would turn out to be a material source of customs law and perhaps could even be considered as the new and main material source on which the foundations of a new customs legal order should be based.
It is evident then, that this moment in history is acting invasively on the sources that have opportunely inspired the drafting of customs law, imposing a redesign of the customs legal system in order to adapt Customs, as a public body, to the new framework that governs the trade of nations, leaving behind the traditional commercial and operational customs forms.
This new material source would in no way deviate from the essence that, since the birth of the word customs, has been the accuracy and confidence in the declaration of the importer or exporter.
On the contrary, customs law, combined with its natural sources and the essence of the person who acts as controller of the income and expenditure of merchandise, has a factor that encompasses the starting point of everything and this is, without a doubt, accuracy.
Since ancient times, when import and export systems were regulated by ancient Rome, the declaration of what was extracted was essential to be aligned with accuracy and currently, even though the export and import mechanism has evolved on a large scale, it remains as an essential element, being the protected asset par excellence of customs law or customs legal system.
However, the advancement of e-commerce establishes the need to maintain this protected asset, which is accuracy, and even involves to a greater degree the declaration of trust, which is evident in the need for the framework of a customs legal system that serves to allow the protagonists of foreign trade, as well as those who have the power of control, to incorporate this current form of international trade and its operational manner through a new customs legal system and a digital Customs for a better exercise of control.
As noted at the beginning, if historical causes have influenced the generation of certain standards resulting from ideological, social, and economic factors, called material sources, this implies that currently, e-commerce would be the current material source in customs matters, being the social and economic factor that is immersed in people's lives in the face of the rise of the Internet.
Therefore, this moment in history encourages making changes such as developing a new legal system in customs matters to streamline trade relations between nations and make it possible for human beings to have a much better life.
The author is a lawyer and member of the Institute of Customs Law and International Trade of the Argentine Association of Constitutional Justice.
