November 10, 2016

Electronic Signatures in Law - for Free!

In what might become an interesting milestone in legal history for financial cryptography, one of our reliable stalwart resources has now been released in its 4th edition:

Electronic Signatures in Law

Stephen Mason is a leading authority on electronic signatures and electronic evidence, having advised global corporations and governments on these topics. He is also the founder and editor of the international open source journal the Digital Evidence and Electronic Signature Law Review. Stephen is an Associate Research Fellow at the IALS.

This fourth edition of the well-established practitioner text sets out what constitutes an electronic signature; the form an electronic signature can take; and discusses the issues relating to evidence – illustrated by analysis of relevant case law and legislation from a wide range of common law and civil law jurisdictions.
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Electronic signatures are ubiquitous. Every person that uses e-mail, uses an electronic signature. Every person that uses a cash card, debit card or credit card uses a form of electronic signature. The fourth edition of this book provides an up-date on the European Union Regulation that repeals the EU Directive in electronic signatures, together with an up-date of the case law across the world. It provides a practical guide to understanding electronic signatures, setting out an analysis of what constitutes an electronic signature, the form an electronic signature can take, the forgery of electronic signatures, and issues relating to evidence, formation of contract and negligence.

The case law on electronic signatures covers a vast range of law, including: employment, family, divorce proceedings, formation of contracts, insurance, e-wills, public administration, judicial use, Statute of Frauds, property transactions, local government planning, criminal procedure, and corporations.

The text includes case law from 38 jurisdictions: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England & Wales, Estonia, European Patent Office, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Scotland, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United States of America and Zimbabwe.

Even more remarkable, this massive tome is now published under Creative Commons NonCommercial licence so students of financial cryptography can download the PDF from the website, check your jurisdictional questions, and finish up your essay with authority. For Free!

Lawyers in the field would still be encouraged to purchase them, but the prices on the site look rather reasonable - £20 for the kindle/ePub, £40 for the softback and £60 for the hardback.

I'm one who has actually forked out £££ for the Mason tomes, about £120 each one, and read them. Unfortunately because I move around too much they tended to get abandoned in random places - they're heavy! Which made me guilty many times over, but 2 of them have had the benefit of circling the globe a few times now before I donated them to R3's library.

Getting an online version is so much more in line with the modern world, and an incredible bounty to financial cryptography.

Posted by iang at November 10, 2016 02:55 AM
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