전자서명법에 관한 법정책적 소고 - 일본 전자서명법의 검토를 중심으로 -

The purpose of the Digital Signature Act is to provide for basic matters concerning digital signatures in order to ensure the safety and reliability of electronic documents and to facilitate the use of digital signatures, thereby accelerating informatization of the nation and the society and enhancing public convenience. However, in order for the Digital Signature Act to achieve its purpose, digital signatures must meet certain standards to ensure the security and integrity of digital signatures, and its operation must be carried out appropriately. In relation to this, this paper examines the contents of Japan's Digital Signature Act and discusses implications for Korea's Digital Signature Act. Korea’s Digital Signature Act was originally enacted on the premise that a public certificate is the sole digital signature. However, the government abolished the public certificate system through a complete revision of this Act in 2020, and the revised Digital Signature Act was prepared in a similar system to Japan, but appears to be incomplete. As public certificates have been abolished, an institutional environment must be established in which digital signatures can be used flexibly and widely in the internet environment. And since the safety and reliability of digital signatures are important for users to use the Internet, our digital signatures-related laws must be regulated to improve the safety and reliability of digital signatures and authentication work. In addition, similar to Japan, the Accreditation system under the Electronic Signature Act provides differentiation to certain businesses in addition to the function of increasing the safety and reliability of electronic signatures. By enhancing this differentiation, it is necessary to encourage users to use the services of accredited certification businesses. In addition, it is necessary to review the appropriateness of the level of punishment and the object and method of punishment.