Nowadays, many countries have introduced the idea of *qualified electronic signatures* (QES), which are digital signatures which also need to meet some special requirements to ensure the public-key to person binding and other hand allow you to place a signature that is supposedly equivalent to a hand-written signature on a piece of paper.

Now assume I want use a public service (for example inscribe at a university) for which only the signature on paper is required and the electronic signature is *not* explicitely excluded.

Now further assume I really wanted to use a QES to inscribe. 

**Can I insist on them accepting the QES or can they *require* a hand-written signature?**

If in doubt, german law is preferred, which would also add the special twist that the signature is non-industry-standard and may require special (commercial) software for proper verification. Other jurisdictions are also acceptable of course.