Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 2307 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to facilitate electronic commerce by defining and allowing the use of electronic certification.

Testimony in support of the bill was received from the Judiciary, Department of Planning and Permitting of the City and County of Honolulu, and the Department of Information Technology.

Currently, chapter 498E, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), establishes the legal validity of electronic records, signatures, and contracts, and provides that if the law requires a signature or record to be notarized, acknowledged, verified, or made under oath, the requirement is satisfied through an electronic signature of the person authorized to perform such acts.

Your Committee notes that UETA does not define these methods of authenticating a document. Your Committee believes that the term "certification" should be understood in its general meaning in accordance with section 1-14, HRS.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2307, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2307, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.