On 1st June Cl@veJusticia entered into force, which is a non-cryptographic mechanism of identification and signature for the purpose of identification and signature of interested parties in proceedings carried out via online presence with judicial bodies and other organs belonging to the Justice Administration. This mechanism is activated pursuant to the Resolution of 26th May 2021 from the General Secretariat for the Innovation and Quality of the Public Justice Service.
The object of this Resolution is to establish the criterion of use and the technical conditions of implementation of the non-cryptographic systems of electronic signature, as set forth in article 10.2.c) of Law 39/2015 of 1st October, which are considered valid for signature purposes in the General Government Administration and its public bodies, as well as in those other Public Administrations which may adopt these criterion and technical conditions.
General procedure for the validation of the authenticity of the expression of will and consent of the interested party
1) The entire electronic process must have in place the sufficient continuity in the interaction through electronic means, and must guarantee the correct two-way audio and video transmission, as the case may be. Therefore, in the face of any problems which may alter the result of an identification, re-identification must take place.
2) Prior authentication from the interested party, carried out through the platform Cl@veJusticia at the time of the expression of the will contained in the procedural act. The authentication of the interested party should be made, in any case via the platform Cl@veJusticia, which uses Cl@vePIN, of the AEAT (Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria – Spanish State Tax Administration), identification, authentication and electronic signature system based upon coordinated Cl@ves (codes), which are common for all of the state administrative public sector. Said authentication of the interested party must be made with a substantial or high level of quality in the authentication.
3) For the prior verification, the interested party must be aware of the data to be signed, therefore, the official must provide a summary in simple language that will include the record that the system will produce and which will be subsequently provided to the interested party as evidence of the signature and the interaction.
4) Finally, the applications which make use of this signature system shall expressly require from the interested party their expression of consent and willingness to sign during the procedure, via the inclusion of phrases which make them unequivocally manifest and require explicit actions of acceptance from the interested party.
In order to carry out the signature operation itself, authentication shall be required again via Cl@veJusticia by means of the direct action of the official, which will give the necessary guarantees of authenticity, traceability, availability, integrity and non-rejection, as well as other guarantees established in the Resolution.
Guarantees in the signature process
In order to guarantee the non-rejection of the signature by the citizen, the signature system shall prove the link of the expression of will and the data signed with the same person. For this, authentication from the citizen shall be requested again at the time of proceeding with the signature, via the direct action of the official. Likewise, the guarantee of non-rejection requires that the signature system ensures adequate traceability should it be necessary to audit a particular signature operation.
Furthermore, a document should be produced, in the form of minutes, which shall offer a summary of the data, with reference to the evidence, which will be stamped with a qualified electronic certificate or an electronic certificate recognised as a seal of the body which issues it, to which a time stamp will be added with a qualified certificate issued by a supervised time stamping provider, and it will be stored by the information system associated with the electronic certificate for which the signature is required.
Management of authentication evidence
The evidence of the base information system does not reside in the signature system itself, but in the systems of the providers of identification services integrated in Cl@vePIN of the Spanish State Tax Administration (AEAT). The providers of identification services should safeguard them for a minimum term of five years.
Proof of signature
During the process of signature the interested party shall be provided with a record of electronic evidence of having carried out the act by means of online presence, which shall be a legible document, preferably in PDF format.
The authenticity of the issuing body via an electronic stamp with a stamp certificate of its own or a stamp from the system itself in guaranteed in PAdES format, when the proof of signature is in PDF format.
Authenticity of the proof of signature is guaranteed, including therein a secure verification code (código seguro de verificación – CSV), and guaranteeing that this proof may be consulted online by means of a collation system of the CSV, the address of which shall be included in the proof of signature itself.
Vilá Abogados
For more information, please contact:
11th June 2021
