A method for automating contract negotiation between a plurality of parties over a communications network. The parties communicate and agree upon a negotiation protocol before commencing the negotiation in a meta contract that is formed to govern or control the negotiation process. The automatic negotiation may include at least one sub negotiation. Machine-executable rules are specified to enable an automatic negotiation to take place between servers over a communications network. A successful negotiation may result in the formation of an electronic commerce contract. Each party may maintain the contract state of the overall negotiation, which may take place among two or more parties, wherein at least one party may be represented by a broker. Thus, complex negotiations may be handled automatically by the inventive method. The negotiation may be conducted semi-automatically to allow for human intervention in the negotiation process.