CWA 14365-1:2004

Guide on the Use of Electronic Signatures - Part 1: Legal and Technical Aspects CWA 14365-1:2004

Scope

Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 on a
community framework for electronic signatures [Dir.1999/93/EC] – referred to as the Directive in the
remainder of this document – established a legal framework for electronic signatures and certificationservices
in order to contribute to their legal recognition. It is laid down in article 5.1 that electronic
signatures fulfilling certain quality metrics – so called qualified electronic signatures – satisfy the
requirements of handwritten signatures. In article 5.2 a residual provision is given where electronic
signatures are not denied legal effectiveness and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings, even
if the quality metrics of qualified electronic signatures are not met.
The scope of this document is on the latter –electronic signatures that do not fulfil all the requirements
laid down for qualified electronic signatures in article 5.1 of the Directive. The document therefore
analyses the differences between cryptographic mechanism of digital signatures, qualified electronic
signatures (according to article 5.1 of the Directive), and electronic signatures (according to article 5.2
of the Directive). In addition, a set of use cases of electronic signatures which do not fulfil some of the
requirements laid down in article 5.1 are discussed in order to point out its effectiveness in ecommerce
environments or in various application fields asking for authentication measures.
In addition to the use cases, the evidence that is provided by electronic signatures is discussed. The
electronic signatures and certification-services are broken up into its basic elements and the proof
provided by each element is discussed from a legal perspective in order to establish the coherence
between the technical elements and its legal effect.