Zbornik Radova: Pravni Fakultet u Novom Sadu (Jan 2019)
The legal effect of electronic signatures in international legislation and in Serbian law
Abstract
The legal effect of electronic signatures, which includes the problem of its validity and legal power, is one of the important issues of electronic commerce. The paper analyzes the approach to this problem in the international legislation and the law of Serbia, considering it in the context of some national comparative solutions, especially in the context of the EU law. At an international level, legislation is conceptually nearly identical and is based on the principles of legal recognition, functional equivalence and formal technological neutrality. Additionally, the approach on the correlation of the legal effect of electronic contracts and their reliability is also widely accepted, with differences only in terms of specifying and the level of related requirements. The law of Serbia also accepts the above-mentioned concept; however, methodologically, structurally and substantively it relies primarily on the EU law. It is particularly important that in our law "reliability and security" becomes a key determinant of the legal effect of electronic signatures. Namely, the highest legal power is given to a qualified electronic signature, which has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature, and can even replace the legalization of a handwritten signature, but in turn it must satisfy a very complex system of strict requirements that all together need to ensure a high level of its reliability.
