Blockchain and contract law: Smart contracts

Abstract

The contribution focuses on the different ways in which blockchain could govern private relationships. In this framework, the main features of smart contracts will be outlined in order to explain how contractual automation plays a key role in understanding the advantages and the drawbacks of technology. In fact, one of the main characteristics of a smart contract is its self-executing character, which is allegedly expected to eliminate the possibility of a breach by a contracting party. On this regard, blockchain and smart contracts may produce an excess of privatization through innovative self-help mechanisms and the application of dispute resolution systems, which can be depicted as ‘alternative’ insofar as they present themselves as independent from courts and other national state authorities. Through some examples, it will be demonstrated that blockchain and smart contracts could be amenable to achieve public goals as well.