On Civil Liability And Risk Prevention Of Certification Authority

Certification Authority(CA),an organization which is approved by authorized government department (such as MIIT in China), is set up for providing reliable the electronic certification service in electronic transactions. Different from the electronic signature focusing on technology, CA centers on regulation construction, to protect authenticity, accuracy, completeness of the identity of the parties,information and related data in transaction, and thus to provide credit support for electronic commerce, making more successful electronic transactions. As a newly grown industry, the electronic certification agencies in the course of providing services may have produced violations to the certificate users and relying parties, it may also break the service contract because of technical factors, industry factors, and institutional factors. Research on how to reduce tort liability and the risk of default of the certification authority is conducive to the establishment of good economic credit system, and to promoting the healthy development of e-commerce industry.The paper consists of four parts:The first part is a brief introduction of electronic signatures and electronic authentication in general overview. The author first reviewed the signatures in the role of legal instruments, as well as the development of the electronic signature technology in the Internet age. In essence, electronic signature is a technology with equivalent function to traditional signature. However, due to the virtual nature of the Internet and imperfectness of credit system, it needs to confirm the identity of the electronic signature through electronic authentication, which leads to the role of electronic authentication. The second part describes the legal relationship between the parties in electronic authentication. The legal relationship of electronic authentication of the parties involved decides their civil rights and obligations. Firstly it reviewed the points of other researchers on the legal relationship of electronic authentication, and then put forward the author's view according to the realities and legal requirements.The third part mainly deals with the civil liabilities of CA in the process of service. It mainly analyzes the cause of civil liability in the process involved in electronic certification service, and classifies civil liabilities into tort liability and breach of contract. It analyzes the objects of tort liability and tort and classification of the liability for breach in three aspects, that is, clearly a violation of former contractual obligations, breach of contract and accompanying obligations.The fourth part briefly introduces the development of China's electronic authentication, and puts forward views on risk control and prevention of certification services industry parties involved.