Research On The Legal Responsibility Of The Parties In Electronic Signatures

Electronic signature mainly contains three parties:electronic signatory, electronic signatures certification authority and electronic signatures relying party. Some developed countries and regions have developed laws of electronic signature authentication or e-commerce, China has also promulgated<Electronic Signature Law>and<electronic authentication service management act> in2004, approach to fill the legislative gaps of electronic signature and its certification. However, most of current laws and regulations involved are about administrative aspects, and for civil legal relations, and civil liability provisions are not enough. In the total of the seven provisions, there is only one term on electronic signatory, and there isn’t the liability of the electronic signature relying party. This is not good to solve the problem of electronic signature certification industry liability risks. Therefore, this article focuses on a civil point of view about the mechanism of electronic signature certification liability. It mainly discusses the legal relationship between the three parties in the electronic signature authentication process, how to take the rights and obligations and responsibilities. On the one hand, combined with the legal principles, in accordance with relevant laws, conducting a detailed analysis of the nature of electronic signatures the legal responsibility of the parties; On the other hand, related to existing conditions, exploring the electronic signature responsibility of different types of certification bodies in the process. The electronic signature certification authority and the electronic signatory is a kind of credit service contract relations, according to the principle of fault liability for breach of duty. The electronic signature certification authority and relying party is a kind of trust between the legal relationship of interests, according to fault-presuming principle assume tort liability. The electronic signatory and relying party is a potential or direct contract relations, according to the principle of fault liability for breach of duty. The author comes up with the proposal on improving the legal responsibility system of China’s electronic signature certification. The author analyzes the status of the legislation of electronic signature certification, significance and problems. On the basis of legislative experience it comes up with four proposals.