ESIGN Act (Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act)
Definition
US federal legislation (2000) providing that no electronic signature may be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form. Technology-neutral: does not mandate any specific cryptographic method. State-level parallel is the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA).
- Enacted
- 2000
- Jurisdiction
- United States, federal
- State counterpart
- Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA)
- Approach
- Technology-neutral, no mandated cryptographic method
Common questions
Does the ESIGN Act require a specific type of electronic signature to be valid?+
No. It sets a non-discrimination rule that an electronic signature cannot be denied legal effect merely for being electronic, but it does not prescribe a technology, so a typed name, a click-to-agree, or a PKI-based digital signature can all qualify depending on context and state law.
How does the ESIGN Act relate to UETA?+
UETA is the state-level model law most US states adopted for the same purpose. ESIGN operates at the federal level and generally defers to a state's UETA enactment where one is in place, filling gaps where a state has not adopted it.
Does ESIGN validity mean a forensic examiner has nothing to check?+
No. ESIGN removes the blanket objection that an e-signature is invalid because it is electronic, but authentication, that the signer actually applied it and the record was not altered, is still a fact question an examiner or court must establish separately.
Related terms
- Aadhaar E-Sign
- India's authentication-linked electronic signature service in which the user's Aadhaar biometric or OTP authentication triggers the generation of a short-validity signing certificate...
- EU Trusted List (EUTL)
- The authoritative list maintained by the European Commission listing all Trust Service Providers per EU member state that are supervised to issue...
- Long-Term Validation (LTV)
- A PDF signature profile (PAdES-LTV, ETSI EN 319 102-1) in which the OCSP responses, CRL data, and TSA certificate chain information are...
- OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol)
- A real-time certificate revocation protocol in which the verifier queries the CA's OCSP responder with the certificate's serial number and receives a...
- Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
- The system of hardware, software, policies, and standards that manage digital certificates and public-key encryption. Provides the trust architecture underpinning all cryptographic...
- QSCD (Qualified Signature Creation Device)
- A hardware or remote HSM-based device that stores the signer's private key such that it cannot be extracted, ensuring sole control under...
- Qualified Electronic Signature (QES)
- The highest tier of electronic signature under EU eIDAS Regulation 910/2014. Created by a Qualified Signature Creation Device (QSCD), backed by a...
- TSA Timestamp (Timestamp Authority)
- A cryptographically protected record of the time at which a signature was created, issued by a Timestamp Authority (TSA) whose own certificate...
- X.509 Certificate
- A digitally signed data structure that binds a public key to a named identity (subject) and is issued by a Certificate Authority....