This note provides a brief and high level overview of the
position on electronic signatures in Jersey and Guernsey. The
subject has been of particular interest recently, since businesses
inside and outside of the Channel Islands began adopting working
from home procedures in response to COVID-19 social distancing
protocols.
The primary relevant legislation in Jersey is the Electronic
Communications (Jersey) Law 2000, as helpfully amended in October
2019 by the Electronic Communications (Amendment of Law) (Jersey)
Regulations 2019. Guernsey's primary legislation is the
Electronic Transactions (Guernsey) Law, 2000 (as amended).
Fundamentally, it is clear as a matter of the laws of both
Jersey and Guernsey that contracts may be formed by electronic
means. There is no legal distinction drawn between exchanges of
emails, application of signatures using specialist apps, copying
snipping or scanning and pasting of pdf signatures into pdf docs,
typing in of names in BOLD
