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 is a strong influence in this field.
Examples of legislation by state or jurisdiction include:

Argentina

Bermuda

Brazil

- Brazilian law states that any digital document is valid for the law if it is certified by ICP-Brasil or if it is certified by another PKI and the concerned parties agree as to the validity of the document.

Canada

Under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act 2000, Canadian law distinguishes between the generic "electronic signature" and a "secure electronic signature". Federal make it clear that a secure electronic signature is a digital signature created and verified in a specific manner.
Canada's 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

- 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

, regulates accreditation procedures for Certification Entities, who certify digital signatures.

European Union and the European Economic Area

Before eIDAS

European Union Directive establishing the framework for electronic signatures:

of 13 December 1999 on a Community framework for electronic signatures. This Directive was repealed on 1 July 2016 and superseded by the eIDAS regulation.
adopting three CEN Workshop Agreements as technical standards presumed to be in accordance with the Directive
Implementing laws: Several countries have already implemented the Directive 1999/93/EC.
* Austria
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* Belgium
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* Czech Republic
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* Denmark
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* England, Scotland and Wales
* Estonia
** Digital signature in Estonia
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* Finland
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* France
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* Germany
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* Greece
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* Hungary
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* Iceland
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* Ireland, Republic of
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* Italy
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* Latvia
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* Lithuania
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* Luxembourg
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* Malta
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*Netherlands
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* Norway
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*Poland
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*Portugal
**Directive 1999/93/EC on electronic signatures was implemented by Portuguese Decree-Law 62/2003 of 3 April 2003. This Decree-Law amended Decree-Law 290-D/99 of 2 August 1999, the previous law governing electronic signatures.
* Romania
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* Slovakia
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* Slovenia
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* Spain
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* Sweden
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eIDAS

In the EU, electronic signatures and related trust services are regulated by the Regulation N°910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market. 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 the eIDAS Regulation is directly effective in all member states.

Ghana

Electronic Transactions Act, 2008, sections 10-14, Act 772 of the Ghanaian Parliament.

Guatemala

India

Information Technology Act, 2000

Indonesia

, for general purposes.
, for government purposes.

Israel

Electronic Signature Law, 5761–2001

Japan

Korea

For reference only. No legal or official effect.

Malaysia

Maldives

México

Moldova

New Zealand

For an overview of the New Zealand law, see:

Peru

Philippines

Russian Federation

Singapore

South Africa

Switzerland

Ukraine

, valid until 7 November 2018.
, valid since 7 November 2018.

United Kingdom

Directive 1999/93/EC on electronic signatures, Commission Decision 2003/511/EC and the eIDAS regulation 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

Uniform Electronic Transactions Act
Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, at et seq. The law permits the use of electronic signatures in many situations, and preempts many state laws that would otherwise limit the use of electronic signatures.

Case law

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

In re Piranha, Inc., 2003 WL 21468504 .
Cloud Corp. v. Hasbro, 314 F.3d 289
Sea-Land Service, Inc. v. Lozen International, 285 F.3d 808

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 for all government agents for their internal use and three independent certificate authorities all of which are issuing qualified digital signatures.

Kamu Sertifikasyon Merkezi
E-Güven
Turktrust
E-Tugra