Creating the Legal Framework for ICT Development: The Example of E-Signature Legislation in Emerging Market Economies

Conducting business and offering e-government services in the global digital environment present important questions of the legal validity of electronic documents and complex issues of trust and authentication. Governments and policy experts have grappled with ways to provide certainty and trust to businesses and citizens engaging in transactions online. One solution that has received considerable attention is the adoption of “electronic signature” or “digital signature” laws. In many countries, policymakers seeking to promote e-commerce and e-government have given priority to enactment of laws intended to create a legal basis for the use and acceptance of electronic or digital signatures. Over the last five to seven years, approximately 50 countries have adopted laws or executive decrees on electronic or digital signatures, and others have them under consideration. 2 A number of these laws anticipate complicated systems of “public key infrastructures” and “certificate authorities” that are expected to manage the technology for creating cryptographically-based digital signatures. Some involve government licensing. Some provide that only signatures made with government-approved