Smart Contracts in Russia: An Attempt to Define the Legal Nature of Smart Contracts

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of legal nature of smart contracts. Smart contracts definitions are analyzed, the data in the project of the Federal law «About digital financial assets» № 419059-7 (passed by the Gosudarstvennaya Duma in the first reading 20.05.2018), and in the technical, legal and economic literature, and outlines the main approaches to defining the legal nature thereof. The author comes to the conclusion that nowadays smart contracts should be qualified as technical means of contract performance, and that the statutory rules applicable to electronic contracts cannot apply to smart contracts.