Mandates and authorisations in eJustice

The table below will identify per country whether there is a mandate/authorisation model using electronic signatures or integrated into the e-signatures framework for eJustice applications, and if so how it works.

Country Generic mandate and authorisation models

Austria Several professions issue profession service cards, including civil law notaries and lawyers. The main legal basis is given with the 2008 professional law amendment. It defines electronic signatures of professions that act in particular roles in legal or administrative proceedings, including:

- Justice Signature: (“Signatur der Justiz“): An advanced electronic signature for court acts.

- Notaries’ Signature (“elektronische Notarsignatur”): A qualified electronic signature of the notary for the establishment of notarial deeds

- Notarisation Signature (“elektronische Beurkundungssignatur”); A qualified signature of a civil law notary or a civil engineer for the purpose of notarisation and establishment of public deeds.

- Lawyer Signature (“elektronische Anwaltssignatur”): A qualified signature indicating a lawyer acting in her/his professional duties.

The certificates of these professional signatures include an object identifier indicating the particular role. The competent authorities (Chamber of Lawyers, Notarial Chambers) are in charge of attesting the profession or of revoking it in case of cessation. When using qualified certificates, these are citizen card implementations.

Belgium No infrastructure is available yet. It is envisaged to use the same generic mandate/authorization management model described above in the future: a sector specific service integrator would then be established for eJustice as well which would link specific mandates/authorizations to generic identification/authentication systems like the eID card. The service integrator would determine users’ mandate/authorization on the basis of authentic databases that it manages through a network of intermediaries (like e.g. local bars, courts etc.).

Croatia No general infrastructure is available yet. For notaries public, one application relies on a database which allows certificate ID numbers to be linked to the quality of public notary after prior registration.

Denmark Legal qualification/capacity is based either on each application’s own denomination (i.e. the Danish electronic deed registration) or on external registers (i.e. the Danish national health authorisation register) based on the Danish central personal registration number. The signature/certificate itself does not include such information.

Estonia No specific model has been implemented yet

Germany Common PKI compliant qualified signatures are used which include an attribute certificate outlining the signature was applied by a notary / lawyer / etc.

Country Generic mandate and authorisation models Iceland No specific model has been implemented yet

Ireland No specific model has been implemented yet

Italy Article 66(8) of the Code of electronic administration states that cards used for identification purposes issued to employees of State authorities (public employees of central administrations) can be made in electronic form and they may allow holders to have access to e-government services. One example of the application of this principle regards the employees of the Ministry of Justice, namely: judges, prosecutors, managers, all personnel of the Ministry. Pursuant to the Decree of the Ministry of Justice 6 November 2007), these can be provided with a card that allows the online authentication for the access to ICT systems of the Ministry. The card is very similar to the EIC and has both a laser band and a microchip, which may contain a certificate of digital signature. In addition, lawyers use their particular systems of digital signature issued via the bar associations.

Liechtenstein No specific model has been implemented yet.

Lithuania No specific model has been implemented yet.

The Netherlands No specific model has been implemented yet

Norway No specific model has been implemented yet. The National Courts Administration has drafted a document on electronic communication with the courts in April 2009, indicating that a portal should be established, to cover the most basic needs, and making use of the national eID interoperability hub. It is deemed that the eID and PKI solutions that are and will be use in the hub will cover the needs also in this area.

Poland No specific model has been implemented yet. Regulatory reform is currently underway to address this issue. Proposed changes concern:

• Operation of the National Court Register: it will be allowed to apply via electronic means; applications will have to be supplied with electronic signatures verified with the usage of valid qualified certificate,

• Civil procedure reform: it will be possible to apply to register courts via electronic means, the same will be allowed for court statements and acts delivery; in all the cases a qualified electronic signature is the basis;

Code revision assumes the possibility to create notarial certifications and their copies, and send them to the courts via electronic means if these electronic documents are supplied with electronic signatures verified with the usage of valid qualified certificate;

• Reform of the Act on registered pledges and a pledge register: involved parties will be legally able to communicate electronically; that regulation will cover all type of information exchanged between entities and pledge register departments in regional courts and the central pledge register information office.

Portugal For the legal professions, signatures are issued by the CA Multicert, with certificate confirming the professional capacity of the signatory. In order to

Country Generic mandate and authorisation models

signatures and time stamping. The Portuguese Bar Association is the Registration Authority (RA) for all the digital certificates that are issued to certify the professional quality of the signatory. Once identified by the RA, the lawyer generates the key pairs and the RA sends a Certificate Request message to the CA (Multicert).

Romania No specific model has been implemented yet