Abstract
Legal trends in the Czech Republic are directed towards electronic means. Parties to the proceedings can communicate with public authorities with legal effect through data boxes or through e-mail correspondence (data message must be electronically signed).
Czech citizens may also use public portals to deliver documents to public authorities. In the Czech Republic has the delivery to data box priority over other ways of delivering documents from public authorities to individuals (and delivering documents between public authorities).
A fundamental change from documentary communication to the electronic form of communication in the whole European Union brought the Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (eIDAS). The eIDAS came gradually into force between the years 2016 and 2018.
The aim of the eIDAS Regulation is not only the harmonization of the legal systems of the Member States of the European Union, but also so-called cross-border interoperability. Therefore, the eIDAS established the principle of bidirectional recognition of electronic signatures.
In response to the eIDAS was in the Czech Republic adopted Act on Trust Services for Electronic Transactions. This Act defines types of electronic signatures (and seals also) which are used in the Czech Republic, in particular electronic signature, advanced electronic signature, recognized electronic signature and qualified electronic signature (the same applies to the types of electronic seals).
In the case when a data box is used for a legal action (delivery of document to a public authority), signing with an electronic signature is not required because a sender of a data message is authenticated via the information system of data boxes.