On Civil Liability Of Certificate Authority In Certificate Services

Certificate Authority should compensate for the damage if he violates the general obligations of guaranteeing identity of subject, confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronic data and causes damage to electronic signatory and relying party. By confuting all kinds of views that disavow the liability of Certificate Authority for tort to relying party, and using related legislation examples for reference, the author elucidate his viewpoints: on the base of violating the obligations of guaranteeing identity of subject, confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronic data, Certificate Authority should bear contract law liability to signatory and liability for tort to relying party. Then, based on the traditional theory on tort in our country and related theory in Germany and Taiwan of china, the paper lays further discuss on this. The contract law liability Certificate Authority bears to signatory is materialized as follows: Certificate Authority bears liability for faulty contracting if he causes damage to signatory on fault during the negotiation process; he bears liability for breach of contract if signatory can not sign or the certificate is used illegally by others; and if he violates after-contract obligations, liability is borne according to liability for breach of contract. The liability Certificate Authority bears to relying party tallies with the four inscapes of liability for torts: the behavior of Certificate Authority violating laws for protection of others constitutes illegal deed; this behavior causes damage of interests to relying party, which constitutes damage fact; there is causality between illegal deed and damage fact; Certificate Authority has the intent to cause the damage when colluding with signatory and...