Digital signatures and law

Worldwide, legislation concerning the effect and validity of digital signatures includes:

Contents

Argentina

Bermuda

Brazil

Canada

China

European Union and the European Economic Area

Ghana

Guatemala

India

Japan

Korea

Malaysia

Moldova

New Zealand

For an overview of the New Zealand law refer: - 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

Federal Law of Russian Federation about Electronic Digital Signature (10.01.2002)

South Africa

Switzerland

United Nations Commission on International Trade Law

United States

Uruguay

Uruguay laws include both, electronic and digital signatures:

Turkey

Turkey has an Electronic Signature Law TBMM.gov.tr 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.

Turkey had a recent triumph in digital signatures and become the forerunner of mobile signature, that is, qualified signatures that are created using mobile phones. The leading GSM operator of Turkey, Turkcell, had developed the business model of this service for consumers first in the world.

Legal cases

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

Further reading

For books in English on electronic signatures, see:

For translations of electronic signature cases from Europe, Brazil, China and Colombia into English, see the Digital Evidence and Electronic Signature Law Review

References