Commentary on sections of the Act Section 2: Definition of "electronic trade document" Concept of "document" in electronic form
Section 2(2) sets out the concept of "document" in electronic form for the purposes of the Act. It provides that the information in electronic form, as well as any other information with which it is logically associated that is also in electronic form, constitutes an "electronic trade document" for the purposes of the Act (emphasis added), provided a reliable system is used to achieve certain functionality in relation to that document.
	In practice, a document in electronic form may have multiple components. One component will always be the particular instance of a data string or data structure consisting of functional code, which is logically associated with (and specifically identifies) the human readable part of the document. There might also be other components made up of human readable text (for example, a .pdf file or other type of data that can be accessed and displayed in a human readable way by a computer). Depending on the technology being used, this could be a unique cryptographic "token" allocated to a system user. The data string or data structure is recorded on or across one or more ledgers, structured records or registers.
	Section 2(2) ensures that the various components of a trade document in electronic form are regarded as a single document, even though they may perform different functions. For example, the requirement that an electronic document must contain the same information as its paper counterpart will likely be fulfilled by the human readable component of the document. This component is logically associated with the controllable data structure. On the other hand, it is likely that control of the document will be exercised by means of the document’s underlying data structure (such as the token).
	"Logically associated" in section 2(2) is intended to mean electronically connected to, linked to, or otherwise cross-referenced to. This wording enables the use of different models for electronic trade documents’ management systems.