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Electronic signatures and law

Many states and legal jurisdictions have adopted legislation concerning the validity and effects of electronic signatures, including cryptographic digital signatures. Article 7 of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's Model Law on Electronic Commerce addresses electronic signatures, providing wording intended to harmonise legal provisions in their field in order to promote international trade, and the Commission's Model Law on Electronic Signatures (2001) is a strong influence in this field.

Examples of legislation by state or jurisdiction include:

Argentina

Bermuda

Brazil

Canada

  • Under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act 2000 (PIPEDA), Canadian law distinguishes between the generic "electronic signature" and a "secure electronic signature". Federal secure electronic signature regulations make it clear that a secure electronic signature is a digital signature created and verified in a specific manner.
  • Canada's Evidence Act contains evidentiary presumptions about both the integrity and validity of electronic documents with attached secure electronic signatures, and of the authenticity of the secure electronic signatures themselves.

China

  • Electronic Signature Law of the People's Republic of China (Chinese/English) - The stated purposes include standardizing the conduct of electronic signatures, confirming the legal validity of electronic signatures and safeguarding the legal interests of parties involved in such matters. This law was revised on 23 April 2019 with immediate effect. The revision involves the deletion of the reference to land conveyancing transactions in Article 3, which provides for types of transaction exempted from the law. Accordingly, land conveyancing agreements can now be executed electronically.

Colombia

European Union and the European Economic Area

Before eIDAS

European Union (EU) Directive establishing the framework for electronic signatures:

eIDAS

In the EU, electronic signatures and related trust services are regulated by the Regulation (EU) N°910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (eIDAS Regulation). This regulation was adopted by the Council of the European Union on 23 July 2014. It became effective on 1 July and repealed the Electronic Signatures Directive 1999/93/EC. At the same date, any laws of EU member states that were inconsistent with eIDAS were also automatically repealed, replaced or modified. In contract to the aforementioned directive (which allowed the EU member states to interpret it and transpose it to their own law) the eIDAS Regulation is directly effective in all member states.

Ghana

Guatemala

India

Indonesia

Israel

Japan

Korea

Malaysia

Maldives

México

Moldova

New Zealand

:- The Laws of New Zealand, Electronic Transactions, paras 16-18; or
:- Commercial Law, paras 8A.7.1-8A.7.4. (These sources are available on the LexisNexis subscription-only website)

Peru

Philippines

Russian Federation

Singapore

South Africa

Switzerland

Ukraine

United Kingdom

Directive 1999/93/EC on electronic signatures, Commission Decision 2003/511/EC and the eIDAS regulation (see above) applied whilst the UK was a member state of the European Union. Domestic legislation includes:

A Law Commission report in 2019 confirmed that the law in England and Wales allows the use of electronic signatures, "both where there is a statutory requirement for a signature and where there is not".

United States

Legislation

Case law

Court decisions discussing the effect and validity of digital signatures or digital signature-related legislation:

  • In re Piranha, Inc., 2003 WL 21468504 (N.D. Tex) (UETA does not preclude a person from contesting that he executed, adopted, or authorized an electronic signature that is purportedly his).
  • Cloud Corp. v. Hasbro, 314 F.3d 289 (7th Circuit, 2002) EMLF.org (E-SIGN does not apply retroactively to contracts formed before it took effect in 2000. Nevertheless, the statute of frauds was satisfied by the text of E-mail plus an (apparently) written notation.)
  • Sea-Land Service, Inc. v. Lozen International, 285 F.3d 808 (9th Circuit, 2002) Admiraltylawguide.com (Internal corporate E-mail with signature block, forwarded to a third party by another employee, was admissible over hearsay objection as a party-admission, where the statement was apparently within the scope of the author's and forwarder's employment.)

Uruguay

Uruguay's laws include both electronic and digital signatures:

Turkey

Turkey has had an electronic signature Law since 2004. This law is stated in European Union Directive 1999/93/EC. Turkey has a Government Certificate Authority - Kamu SM for all government agents for their internal use and three independent certificate authorities all of which are issuing qualified digital signatures.

References

Further reading

  • Srivastava Aashish, Electronic Signatures for B2B Contracts: Evidence from Australia (Springer, 2013)
  • Lorna Brazell, Electronic Signatures Law and Regulation, (Sweet & Maxwell, 2004)
  • J. Buckley, J. Kromer, M. Tank, R. Whitaker, The Law of Electronic Signatures, 2014-2015 Edition (Thomson Reuters, 2014)
  • Dennis Campbell, editor, E-Commerce and the Law of Digital Signatures (Oceana Publications, 2005)
  • M. H. M Schellenkens, Electronic Signatures Authentication Technology from a Legal Perspective, (TMC Asser Press, 2004)