Summary

The prevailing use of information technology in the work of official bodies has resulted in the introduction of a large number of digital documents into hitherto paper-based work. Changing document administration into a digital form makes the procedures faster and more convenient, on the one hand, but on the other hand it also means expenditures on implementing new rules and procedures.

A digital signature in a digital document is analogous to a personal signature. The aim of the signature is to prove the association of the person with the document being signed and this aim is achieved in the same way by both a personal signature and a digital signature. Due to the common aim, the general rules of signing do not change with using a digital signature, but the requirements of form for a digital document are somewhat different from a document stored on paper. The main principles of document administration remain the same even with the use of documents with digital signatures – the document remains a document and the signature remains a signature.

The article provides an overview of the legal regulation in Estonia for the use of digital signatures and demonstrates that in general legal acts do not forbid the use of digital signatures. The author admits, however, that there are some legal discrepancies and misuse of terms in the regulations. As a result of the analysis, the author finds that these discrepancies are not sufficiently great to pose problems in the use of digital signatures.