BBC News: E-signatures become legal

[Harald Löher]

> E-signatures become legal
> 
> Electronic signatures used to sign documents on the internet are now
> legally admissible in a court of law as handwritten signatures, the
> Department of Trade and Industry announced on Tuesday.
> 
> The UK Government is one of the first in the world to introduce such
> legislation, which has come into effect after being included in the
> Electronic Communications Act in May.
> 
> Consumers with the correct computer equipment can now sign documents
> - -- for example a letter to the bank -- with an e-signature and feel
> confident that it will be accepted in a court should a dispute arise.

>From the "DIRECTIVE 1999/93/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE
COUNCIL, of 13 December 1999 on a Community framework for electronic
signatures", published in "Official Journal of the European Communities
19.1.2000":

Phrase 20:
"Harmonised criteria relating to the legal effects of elec-
tronic signatures will preserve a coherent legal frame-
work across the Community;national law lays down
different requirements for the legal validity of hand-
written signatures;whereas certificates can be used to
confirm the identity of a person signing electronically;
advanced electronic signatures based on qualified certi-
ficates aim at a higher level of security;advanced elec-
tronic signatures which are based on a qualified certifi-
cate and which are created by a secure-signature-creation
device can be regarded as legally equivalent to hand-
written signatures only if the requirements for hand-
written signatures are fulfilled;"

And Article 5 "Legal effects of electronic signatures" says:
"1.Member States shall ensure that advanced electronic
signatures which are based on a qualified certificate and which
are created by a secure-signature-creation device:
(a)satisfy the legal requirements of a signature in relation to
data in electronic form in the same manner as a hand-
written signature satisfies those requirements in relation to
paper-based data;and
(b)are admissible as evidence in legal proceedings."

Article 13 Implementation says:
"1.Member States shall bring into force the laws,regulations
and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this
Directive before 19 July 2001. They shall forthwith inform the
Commission thereof."

That means you need a qualified certificate and a
secure-signature-creation device to produce an advanced electronic
signature.
Not knowing the Electronic Communications Act I can give as an example
the German Signaturgesetz which has led to the requirement that devices
used to produce advanced electronic signatures have to have an ITSEC
certificate level E2 or E4, depending on the type of device. 


Harald Löher
IT-Consultant