Abstract:
The recognition of electronic official documents is a necessity of today's society; the legal realization of this type of document depends on two factors. First, the use of a reliable electronic signature by the notary, and second, the storage of electronic documents in a central electronic archive. Based on what is currently happening in the notary offices of our country, it must be admitted that given the relative availability of the prerequisites and facilities for issuing electronic official documents in Iran (the electronic nature of the stages of preparing official documents, the equipping of notaries with reliable electronic signatures, and the obligation of the Registration Organization to create a platform similar to a central electronic archive), the recognition of electronic official documents under enacted laws becomes highly necessary. This is the same necessity that the English legislator has recognized for years. This writing, using a descriptive-analytical method and a comparative approach, while stating the definition and types of electronic documents, examines the differences between a reliable electronic document and an electronic official document, addresses the country's needs in this field, and subsequently leads to suggestions regarding the enactment of laws concerning electronic official documents. In this research, the achievements of the English legal system, the UNCITRAL Model Laws on Electronic Commerce and Electronic Signatures, and the enacted laws of Iran have been examined. Furthermore, this research attempts to examine the validity, principles, conflict, and rules for resolving the legal effects of electronic registration of documents in Iranian and English law, as well as the validation and acceptance of electronic documents.
Machine summary:
Based on what is currently happening in the official notary offices of our country, it must be admitted that given the relative availability of the prerequisites and facilities for issuing electronic official documents in Iran (the electronic transformation of the stages of preparing official documents, the equipping of notaries with reliable electronic signatures, and the obligation of the Registration Organization to create a platform similar to a central electronic archive), the recognition of electronic official documents under enacted laws becomes highly necessary.
And according to Article 8: "Whenever the law requires information to be presented or maintained in its original form, this can also be achieved by maintaining and presenting the information in the form of message data," and according to the latter part of Article 9 of the same law, "the replacement of paper documents with 'message data' shall have no effect on the previous rights and obligations of the parties," and finally, Article 12 of this law has been drafted in such a way that it resolves any doubt or ambiguity regarding the validity of electronic documents and records solely due to their electronic form and format: "Documents and evidence for proving a claim may be in the form of message data, and in no court or government office can the probative value of 'message data' be rejected based on existing rules of evidence solely because of its form and format.
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