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Review article

The development of legal regulation of the electronic signature, electronic certificate and electronic document in Croatian and comparative law

Tihomir Katulić ; Faculty of law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia


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page 1339-1378

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Abstract

In the introduction the author talks about the key role of electronic signature in the legal regulation of electronic commerce as a fast growing branch of economy concerned with numerous legal issues regarding the impact of information technology on the society
and law. The article analyses the conditions to be met electronic signature in order to replace hand signature in legal transactions, including an assessment of the importance of hand signature as a means of authenticating the author of a document, and confirming
its contents. Further, the author gives an outline of the intensive legislative activity in the area of electronic signature, starting from the first laws of the mid 1990s to date. In spite of the short timeframe of 15 years, several different approaches have developed
in the regulation of electronic signature and related issues, applied by legislatures worldwide, in order to provide substantial legal security in electronic commerce and
other legal relations established via electronic communication. The author differentiates between several legislative phases with different theoretical and practical outlooks on the character of the regulation of electronic signature. The first phase looks at the relationship
between two opposing approaches to the necessity to specify the technological basis of electronic signature, while the second analyses the nature of the two-track system and the legal framework based thereupon, predominant in the European legal circle. Based
on experiences of comparative law, the auther goes on to analyse selected provisions from the Electronic Signature Act, taking a look at its impact on other laws, particularly the Electronic Document Act. In the final part of the article the author takes a critical look
at the institute of electronic document, to conclude with an overview of the application of electronic signature in the Croatian legal practice to date.

Keywords

electronic signature; advanced electronic signature; electronic document; electronic commerce; electronic communication; information technology; Public Key Infrastructure; Electronic Data Interchange

Hrčak ID:

70481

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/70481

Publication date:

15.7.2011.

Article data in other languages: croatian german

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