Jusletter IT

The Council of Europe 2004 Recommendation on e-voting (Rec(2004)11) is a soft law instrument containing legal, operational and technical standards for e-voting. An ad-hoc Committee of Experts on E-voting (CAHVE) started work on its update in 2015. This paper focuses on the place of Rec(2004)11 in the regulatory framework for e-voting as well as on issues related to its update. We discuss the main results of the first phase of the update and some specific legal questions related to the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in elections. The main challenge for such an instrument is to fully and correctly translate broader principles of the European Electoral Heritage into standards and requirements for e-voting that remain pertinent as technology evolves.

Following 15 experimental years of continentally induced legislation regarding electronic signatures and identification devices, in 2014 the EU has made a new attempt: experience with not interoperable installations, denouements as well as the increase of legal relevant e-communication and safety requirements open out into a new EU regulation. This provides new terminologies for the semantic field «Identity and Signature». Simultaneously, a liability multi-stage-system is made available, up until government liability for officially notified authentication systems. (ah)

The eIDAS Regulation with its overall seven implementing acts agreed upon so far is on the cusp of being applied throughout Europe. With this, one significant «key enabler» for the Digital Single Market will be available, making the cross-border electronic communication and transaction legally safer and, with this, contributing substantially to the acceptance of legally relevant e-communication. In time, the national legislative implementation and support measures complementing the eIDAS Regulation are being elaborated. Given that broad sections of the Regulation will be applied from 1 July 2016 (namely those regarding trust services) and the Signatures Directive will be repealed from this date, more extensive intrastate legal measures are imminent. The speech ought to offer a current overview of the eIDAS Regulation and its immediate effects, and to provide an outlook of the future intrastate legal measures at the end of February 2016. (ah)

Big Data is about deriving new information from existing data – information that allows to create markets or rather control them and to steer policy. Switzerland – similar to the EU – is five to ten years behind the United States regarding Big Data technology and practical big data applications. This creates dependencies. With the National Research Program Big Data, impact-orientated research ought to be strengthened in Switzerland. One of three program modules, that one dealing with social issues – from the fields of ethics, politics and law amongst others – is presented in the lecture. (ah)