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E-Signature Legality Guide

Most jurisdictions follow the principle of functional equivalence: a signature is not denied legal effect merely because it is electronic. What varies is how that principle is written into law, which document types are carved out, and how a court weighs the evidence behind a signature. Pick your jurisdiction below to read the guidance in that country’s own language.

Jurisdictions

Regional availability

We do not publish a legality page for every country, because for some jurisdictions the honest answer is that we cannot currently serve them well:

  • Russia: Under Federal Law 63-FZ, higher-risk documents require a qualified electronic signature issued by an accredited Russian certification center, which a foreign service cannot provide. Combined with the data-localization requirements of Law 152-FZ — our infrastructure runs on Google Cloud outside Russia — we do not support Russia at this time.
  • Mainland China: While electronic signatures are lawful under the Electronic Signature Law, Article 26 conditions the equivalent legal effect of certificates issued by overseas certification authorities on approval by the competent authority, and PIPL’s cross-border transfer rules constrain processing personal data outside China. On our current architecture we cannot meet those conditions, so we do not officially support mainland China at this time. Hong Kong and Macau operate under separate legal frameworks and are outside the scope of this notice.

Not legal advice

This guide is provided for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Laws change frequently and we do not guarantee that this content is current or accurate. Whether an electronically signed document is valid or enforceable depends on the document type and the circumstances — for specific legal questions, consult a qualified lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction.