Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
On February 8, 2000, he exhorted the High Assembly to forge ahead with
the reform:
The supremacy of writing with regard to evidence law should not be diminished.
The situation is different with regard to the question of media. A confusion has
established itself over the years between writing and its traditional media, paper,
but I implore you, do not remain fixated on this confusion. In my opinion, writing
must be legally defined as independent of media, so as to stand a better chance of
surviving in the future. I formally pronounce myself in favor of a perfect equality
between electronic media and paper. Any intermediary solution would marginalize
the French proof system.
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Minister of Justice and Guardian of the Seals Élisabeth Guigou felt more
wary of the move, underlining the importance of maintaining public con-
fidence in legal authenticity:
Authentic acts draw a particular strength from the intervention of a third party
invested with a mission of public interest. This third party is a privileged witness of
the operation attested by the act, and of the respect of form requirements. By the
trust they inspire, authentic acts constitute the best guarantee of legal security. We
must thus be particularly careful that their dematerialization not bring into question
the guarantees of authenticity which they bear. We must find, for authentic acts, a
new electronic formalism which could be substituted to the actual requirements
attached to the paper medium.
Guigou also expressed serious concern with the looming problem of
ensuring the long-term preservation of signed authentic acts:
Contrary to private acts, which must only be preserved for a maximal duration of
thirty years, authentic acts must be preserved for an unlimited duration. Technologi-
cal solutions must thus guarantee the long-term preservation of the acts. But current
electronic technologies can only guarantee preservation of information for a limited
period, due to their rapid obsolescence. . . . I say it very clearly, the technical condi-
tions for the dematerialization of authentic acts are not there yet.
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Guigou's hesitations with respect to reforming the system of civil law
authenticity were well founded. The first issue, the definition of a new
formalism for authenticity, touched directly on the problem of the physical
presence of the trusted witness. Although handwritten signatures had in
the past enabled documents to testify “in and of themselves,” authentic
acts could not do away with the impartial third party who alone vests
them with special evidential powers. If anything, public-key technologies
seemed to significantly weaken the legal guarantees of civil law authen-
ticity: although cryptographic signatures used over the Internet made
