The Impact of Information Technology Development on the Legal Concept A Particular Examination on the Legal concept of 'Signatures'

This paper intends to explore the impact of Information technology(IT) development on the legal concept of ‘signatures’.To what extent and in which way does it impact on the legalconcept of ‘signatures’? This paper attempts toexamine this issue from an international and comparative perspective.It was found that IT development has different levels of impacton the legal concept of ‘signatures’ in differentjurisdictions. In the Common Law system such as the UK and theUS, it does not change the legal concept of ‘signatures’.However, it does put the legal concept on such an importantposition. On the contrary, IT development changes the legalconcept of ‘signatures’ in the Civil Law systemsuch as Germany and China.