Burdens of Proof―Cryptographic Culture and Evidence Law in the Age of Electronic Documents

The gradual disappearance of paper and its familiar evidential qualities affectsalmost every dimension of contemporary life. From health records to ballots, almost all documentsare now digitized at some point of their life cycle, easily copied, altered, and distributed. InBurdens of Proof, Jean-Francois Blanchette examines the challenge of defining anew evidentiary framework for electronic documents, focusing on the design of a digital equivalentto handwritten signatures.

From the blackboards of mathematicians to the halls oflegislative assemblies, Blanchette traces the path of such an equivalent: digital signatures basedon the mathematics of public-key cryptography. In the mid-1990s, cryptographic signatures formed thecenterpiece of a worldwide wave of legal reform and of an ambitious cryptographic research agendathat sought to build privacy, anonymity, and accountability into the very infrastructure of theInternet. Yet markets for cryptographic products collapsed in the aftermath of the dot-com boom andbust along with cryptography's social projects.

Blanchette describes the trials ofFrench bureaucracies as they wrestled with the application of electronic signatures to real estatecontracts, birth certificates, and land titles, and tracks the convoluted paths through whichelectronic documents acquire moral authority. These paths suggest that the material world need notmerely succumb to the virtual but, rather, can usefully inspire it. Indeed, Blanchette argues, inrenewing their engagement with the material world, cryptographers might also find the key to broaderacceptance of their design goals.

Jean-Francois Blanchette is Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.