Topical Problems of Legal Support of Juridical Significance of Electronic Documents

Abstract

This paper studies the most topical aspects of legal security of electronic documents – a relatively new phenomenon which has become common after a modern telecommunication infrastructure has been developed. The source for the analysis are The strategy of information society in Russia, federal laws from the 1990s to 2010, bylaws, works of Russian legal scholars and experts. Legal regulation of electronic documentation is regarded by the authors within the concept of the RF single information space, which implies the necessity to transfer to electronic communication of all state institutions, agencies and people. The paper defines a number of concepts including electronic document, legal relevance of electronic document and the legal regime of electronic documents. The examples show the evolution of the terminology of the Russian legal science. It is noted that the concept of legal regime is efficiently studied by the specialists of various branches of law. Though many definitions have been proposed, there is no single one. Hence, in many legislative acts and codes, the definition of legal regime is either absent or is shown through norms referring to other legal acts. The work analyzes various challenges relating to the necessary legal regulation of legal force for an electronic signature. The article mentions the lack of conceptual interpretations of the issues as to legal force of electronic documents. The authors propose a number of their own definitions and conclude that the question on the limits of the legal regime for an electronic document remains open. Furthermore, attention is required to the legal regulation of creating, copying, storing and spreading electronic documents, as well as the requirements to various such documents.