The trend in the era of digital globalization has led to innovative attempts in the field of international trade, for example, in the form of smart contracts. Smart contracts aim to digitally automate the execution of legal contracts and improve the ease of trade. However, its formation conditions, validity and risk control, are yet to be regulated by law. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), as a uniform substantive law regulating the commercial relations of States in international commercial activities, is valuable in responding to the emerging legal issues arising from the products of technological developments. This study discusses the specific criteria for the formation of smart contracts under the CISG Convention from the perspective of international law and in relation to the specific legal elements. Following this, it analyses the loopholes and challenges of smart contracts in practice from the perspective of contractual freedom and disintermediation, and proposes some improvements in preserving the immutability of the contract and reducing the risk of third party platforms. Finally, the prospects for the application of smart contracts as an aid in international commercial contracts are discussed.
This paper considers the smart contracts development process based on business rules using natural language processing as the research object. The research subject includes software components for creating smart contracts based on business rules using natural language processing. The research aims to simplify the software component development for decentralized systems by using smart contracts generation from business rules written in natural language. This study considers smart contract development approaches and technologies, intelligent text processing methods, as well as software development techniques using the Python programming language for the experimental implementation of the proposed solution. This study outlines the relevance of this research, provides a state-of-the-art analysis, proposes the improved procedure of smart contracts’ development and deployment, and suggests an algorithm for smart contract generation based on business rules.
La blockchain est définie comme une technologie de registre distribué utilisant une base de données avec chaînage cryptographique, fonctionnant sans organe de contrôle. Des programmes informatiques auto-exécutants, appelés « smart contracts », peuvent être déployés sur des blockchains afin d’exécuter automatiquement des actions prédéfinies, répondant à des conditions déterminées. Ils s’apparentent ainsi à des mécanismes d’exécution de contrats. La recherche a pour objet de déterminer comment cet outil peut être appréhendé par le droit des contrats et être utilisé au service des contrats. De nombreuses questions se posent dans cette perspective. Les smart contracts peuvent-ils exécuter des contrats ? Sont-ils des contrats ? Sont-ils dotés d’intelligence ? Peut-on les modifier alors qu’ils sont déjà enregistrés sur une blockchain ? Comment prouver qu’une exécution s’est produite sur une blockchain ? Comment trouver l’identité des contractants s’ils sont sous pseudonyme ? Que faire en cas d’erreur de programmation ? L’étude se propose d’aborder l’ensemble des questions qui peuvent survenir lorsque l’on considère les smart contracts comme un outil contractuel. Un travail de qualification de l’instrument permettra de déterminer le régime juridique applicable pour chaque situation donnée.
Deden Rustiana, Dennis Ramadhan, Lucky Wibowo, Anang Wahyu Nugroho
A comprehensive analysis is necessary for the implementation and use of smart contracts in companies. This overview clarifies how this technology is now being used and identifies problems that are preventing its usage in contemporary organizations. This paper offers an organized assessment of prior research that includes frameworks, techniques, functional prototypes, and simulations that show how smart contracts are used in businesses. This paper's main goal is to better understand how smart-contract technology is used in organizations today. While there is limited knowledge about how smart contracts are used in companies, there is significant progress being made in the development of the technology that supports them. In this work, we describe the characteristics of smart-contract applications in many current organization fields. We further examine and group issues that hinder the adoption of smart-contract applications.
The importance of legal protection and ensuring the prevention of criminal offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency was noted. The history of legal regulation of the use of cryptocurrency in Ukraine is briefly analyzed. An analysis of the Law of Ukraine "On Virtual Assets" was carried out and some of its shortcomings were identified. Cryptocurrency is proposed to be considered one of the types of virtual assets, namely digital currency (electronic funds), the emission and accounting of which is based on asymmetric encryption, the use of cryptographic protection methods. It is indicated that activities to prevent crimes related to the use of cryptocurrency should be extremely diverse, taking into account the fact that violations of the circulation of cryptocurrency will eventually penetrate into all major spheres of public life, and will require adequate measures. The concept and main types of general social principles for the prevention of offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency in Ukraine are defined. It is indicated that such preventive activity is a humane means of maintaining the country's security and law and order. These include verification of state regulation of the virtual assets market, control over the activities of participants in the virtual assets market, identification of criminogenic factors in legal entities where offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency are most often committed; development of rules for the use of cryptocurrency typical for all participants of the virtual assets market and others. The implementation of general social principles for the prevention of offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency in Ukraine, along with the protection of society from these offenses, protects offenders from committing more serious offenses, and thus saves them from severe criminal punishment. Special criminological measures to prevent crimes related to the use of cryptocurrency are analyzed. It is emphasized that such measures involve the creation of an optimal system for detecting the facts of these offenses and identifying persons who commit such actions. For this, it is necessary to reach a situation where the maximum possible number of sources of information regarding offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency will function. Individual approaches to the prevention of offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency involve the work of authorized bodies with individual individuals. Forms of individual prevention include studying the identity of potential offenders, interviewing individuals, surveillance and other measures. An important measure of individual prevention of offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency is the creation of a data bank on persons who have committed offenses in the specified or related areas.
The paper is devoted to the study of the legal nature of a non-fungible token — NFT. The paper discusses the concept and types of tokens. The author defines a token as a unit of accounting in a distributed ledger that digitally represents financial instruments or other assets that expresses the economic value of the objects being represented and allows the rights associated with them to be exercised. According to a common point of view, NFT serves as a means of digital expression of a particular object, it has characteristics (signs) inherent exclusively to it, by virtue of which it cannot be exchanged for another token, and the cost of one NFT is not conditioned by the cost of other tokens. The author notes that the listed features are not inherent in NFT in all cases. In addition, using the example of NFT, the author draws attention to the problem of artificial limitations of the mechanism of legal regulation of fundamentally new digital objects. It is determined that, with regard to NFT, today in the Russian Federation, both the legislator and the financial market regulator maintain the status quo: the state intervenes in public relations that develop during the turnover of non-fungible tokens only if transactions involving them violate the law. Meanwhile, it can be expected that eventually the problems of the issue and circulation of NFT in the financial market will receive their regulatory and legal resolution.
With the development of blockchain technology and digital assets, the problem pages of digital assets at the legal level are becoming more and more prominent. This article will start with smart contracts and combine the case of Shenzhen Ethereum to analyze the legal issues based on blockchain technology and digital assets. The current status of conservation and its possible future development directions are analyzed. This article will specifically discuss the issue of contract law regulation of smart contracts from the perspective of legal system construction, as well as the compatibility between smart contracts and current contract law. Finally, the following conclusions are drawn: Firstly, consciously accepting the law needs to adapt to social changes and accepting the fact that the law needs to be adjusted. Secondly, at the operational level, the use of technology must comply with. Thirdly, at the research level, relevant legal research must be done, and legal scholars must have inter-professional knowledge and capabilities.
Complex socio-economic processes are simultaneously taking place in Russian society: the economy is adapting to external economic challenges and, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, many aspects of social life are being transferred online. As a result, there is a transformation of all types of entrepreneurial activity, oriented both to the end consumer and to another legal entity (B2B transactions). The digitalization of commerce objectively requires an effective legal response to the procedures for concluding and executing contracts. A feature of the Russian legal system for regulating digital assets can be considered the impossibility of concluding direct transactions, bypassing a specialized information platform.
 The article discusses the features of smart contracts as a civil law way of disposing of digital rights. The activity of an information platform operator or a market maker as an intermediary is analyzed. Their positive and negative impact on the digital asset market is shown.
 The conclusion is substantiated that the disposal of digital rights through the use of a smart contract cannot be identified with all other classical contractual structures. Smart contracts, including those that are made using blockchain and Ethereum technology, are legally different from the electronic form of a civil law contract. Despite the obvious advantages of a smart contract as a way to manage digital assets, in the absence of legal regulation, significant business risks arise that require a prompt and effective legislative solution
The article attempts to evaluate the possibilities of using blockchain and smart contract technologies, as well as big data and artificial intelligence technologies in traditional commercial contracts. In addition, the author illustrates the legal risks of using information technologies and the limits of their implementation in the field of contract law. The goal chosen by the author predetermined the use of the formal legal method in the analysis of the current legal norms. At the same time, it is impossible to imagine the search for answers to the questions without referring to the comparative legal method: in the article, the author refers to the views of English and American scholars when considering the problems of using artificial intelligence technology in commercial contracts. As a result of the research, the author comes to the conclusion that firstly smart contracts designed for automatic transactions on the Internet do not allow moving real goods in the real world, therefore the scope of their use is only limited to the conclusion, but not to the execution of contracts of sale. Secondly, a smart contract can completely supplant traditional contracts and obligations in mediation contracts aimed at performing only legal actions. Thirdly, there is a problem of ensuring the right to privacy when using big data, therefore, the commercial use of the collected data, though does improve sales, violates basic human rights. And finally, the mastered capabilities for automating the processes of selecting counterparties, determining and changing storage conditions, tracking the balance of goods in the warehouse, etc., allow author to discuss the potentially great possibilities of using AI in commerce.
When we talk about blockchain and smart contracts, it is necessary to consider the parties participating in them, their rights and obligations, as well as the prerequisites for concluding a smart contract, namely, offer and acceptance. We also have to understand how it is used in different fields of law. As we are aware, blockchain is considered as the fourth generation industrial revolution. Its creation is related to a person named Sabo, it is still unknown who he was – it means that we do not have exact information, whether it was one person who created blockchain – part of the fourth industrial revolution or a group of people. At the same time, let's define the meaning of the contract in general, we can formulate the definition of the agreement (contract) as follows, the agreement (contract) is a deal concluded by two parties, which must have legal consequences, i.e. the parties participating in it have rights and obligations. It should also be noted, that thousands of years have passed since the first contracts were signed, however, the most significant change in the development of contracts occurred during the last century. The article will discuss all the issues and problems that are very important in relation to this topic. The role of offer and acceptance in blockchain and smart contracts and how it differs from the usual standard contract will be described, we will also talk about the parties of the smart contract and how we can use it in different fields of law.
Disputes regarding smart contracts are inevitable, and parties will need means for dealing with smart contract issues. This article highlights the need for dispute resolution mechanisms for smart contracts. The author provides analysis of the possible mechanisms to solve disputes arising from smart contracts, namely dispute resolution by traditional arbitration institutions and blockchain arbitration. Article acknowledges the benefits and challenges of both mechanisms. In the light of this, the author concludes about instituting a hybrid approach aimed at resolving disputes that will not stymie efficiencies of smart contracts.
D. Jonathan Sebastian-Cardenas, Sri Nikhil Gupta Gourisetti, Shammya Shananda Saha, Komal Khan · 7 authors
Smart contracts (SCs) are a set of logical procedures that can be run by individual peers participating within a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) network. By design, smart contracts inherit many of the benefits of DLT, including its immutability, scalability and security properties. Nevertheless, they may introduce additional attack vectors, which can lead to cybersecurity explorations that could jeopardize the end-application's ability to operate as intended or result in data leaks, and privacy violations. In this work an exploration of known problems, and possible attack scenarios will be presented. This is followed by a set of proposed best practices and mitigation strategies that are intended to assist developers, researchers and other relevant stakeholders to develop secure SC implementations.
Vladimir Yuzhakov, Elvira Talapina, Irina Chereshneva
Within the framework of this work, the actual relations associated with the application of distributed ledger technology (TRR) in public administration and the potential of their legal regulation have been analyzed. The legal risks of using TPP in public administration were identified and systematized, a classification of legal risks when using TPP, primarily in the form of a blockchain, in public administration was proposed. Proposals are formulated to overcome legal risks when using TRP in public administration.
The article analyzes the problems and threats associated with the use of the latest information technologies for criminal purposes, as well as the use of cryptocurrencies in the process of legalizing proceeds from crime to finance terrorism and extremism
Svrha je istraživanja u ovom diplomskom radu utvrditi što je potrebno za pravno i tehnološko unapređenje i usklađivanje pametnih ugovora kako bi pametni ugovori imali širu primjenu i pravnu prihvaćenost te bili ravnopravni s tradicionalnim ugovorima u pisanom obliku. Cilj je istraživanja dokazati spremnost tehnologije koja omogućava pametne ugovore te objasniti zašto pametni ugovori nisu do sad pravno regulirani i prihvaćeni. Analizom i usporedbom definicija za blockchain tehnologiju i pametne ugovore ponuđena je vlastita definicija za blockchain tehnologiju i pametne ugovore. Usporedili su se tradicionalni i pametni ugovori kako bi se istaknule prednosti i nedostaci pametnih ugovora te su se ponudila rješenja za nedostatke pametnih ugovora. Prijedlozi za tehnološko unapređenje pametnih ugovora su ponuđeni za Ethereum blockchain jer je to prva platforma za pametne ugovore koja je najveća i najpopularnija. Ponuđena su rješenja za prepreke koje su detektirali regulatori pojedinih država i organizacije. Pravna unapređenja pametnih ugovora su predložena na temelju analizi stava sudionika u pravnom sustavu.
The article presents the authors’ view on the ongoing changes in the process of resolving new “digital” disputes. The authors assess the global practice of resolving digital disputes through arbitration, as well as the new form of digital rights protection - blockchain arbitration. They analyze regulation of the new procedure for the protection of digital rights in foreign practice. The authors believe that the developed foreign experience in resolving smart contracts is progressive and effective. The findings of the research can be outlined as follows: 1) for the first time, special rules for resolving digital disputes have been formulated; they have been developed in tight cooperation of lawyers and IT specialists; 2) disputes from smart contracts and blockchain were isolated into a separate form of rights protection; 3) special approaches to settling digital disputes at the stage of concluding smart contracts have been worked out; 4) the process of enhancing the procedure for resolving digital disputes is ongoing.
The article is devoted to the study of cryptocurrency and its impact on the shadow sector of the economy. Operations related to cryptocurrencies are anonymous, so it is very difficult to control all operations, which is why it has become so actively used in the shadow economy. This raises the problem of how to control transactions and what laws should be applied to regulate the digital currency
The current hype cycle surrounding non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, has been going on for close to two years. As we continue to move through this phase and into whatever is next, it is important to look at the current use cases out there and some of the intellectual property issues facing companies that avail themselves of this technology. What follows are excerpts from my contributions to a discussion panel that took place in November 2021, modified as necessary for clarity and for the purposes of this Article. 
 The first question one might ask is, “Why are companies choosing to enter into the NFT space in the first place?”
In this research, we discuss the smart contracts, legal acts, Block Chain rules and their scope, the legal problems that they arise, and how the theory of contracts has been developed accordingly. At the current time, the smart contracts, specially those relating to Block chain rules and cryptocurrency trading, are creating a radical transformation where the conventional language has fallen back and a new and unique phenomenon, known as the language of codes, has emerged. Thus, the digital relationships performed within smart contracts raise several questions. Hence, the question arises here: to what extent these contracts need a specific legislation to address all the problems that they pose?
Digital art is the result of creative activity practiced in the virtual space. There is no unified concept of digital art in Russia, and there is no legislative consolidation of this term. In this regard, attempts to find an answer to what digital art is and what rights its acquirer has are topical issues of Russian legal science. At the same time, under the influence of technology, as a result of the development of the blockchain, new ways of handling digital art objects have appeared. The appearance of non-fungible tokens (NFT) causes a lot of legal problems. The study of these problems is the most important task for modern lawyers. The purpose of the study is to identify the legal qualification of digital art objects. In this regard, the author sets the task to study the structure of NFT as an object of civil law. The purpose of the article is also to identify potential risks for intellectual property rights holders when issuing NFT. The methodology of this research is based on the use of a set of general scientific methods and specific methods of analysis used in legal science: system-structural method, system-functional, induction and deduction, analogy, method of formal logic and system approach. In particular, the dialectical method provides an opportunity to systematically explore the unity of social content and legal form of art objects in the digital space. The formal legal method makes it possible to form legal categories by highlighting the main features of phenomena related to research questions. The author has made assumptions about the legal nature of digital art and NFT, as well as their place in the system of intellectual property law. The author has come to the conclusion that crypto art is one of the types of digital art. A specific feature of cryptographic art objects is that their emergence and existence is possible only in blockchain. As a result of the conducted research, it has been revealed that not all NFTs connected to art objects are crypto-art objects in digital commerce.
A transnationalization of corruption practices, born by globalization processes, is one of nowadays negative phenomenon that deserves intensive studying. Digital technologies smooth the pathways for transnational corruption. On the other hand, digitalization also provides tools for building up respective countermeasures. This article examines the potential of digital technologies, primarily artificial intelligence (AI), in preventing corruption practices. Firstly, the characteristics of the «global corruption» phenomenon are outlined. The experience of implementing digital technologies in the corruption countermeasures has been analysed that revealed problems and prospective trends in the development of digital anti-corruption mechanisms at the supra-national level of governance. Digital tools for detecting and tracking of transnational corruption schemes were described in the framework of international journalistic investigations or anti-corruption control technologies in the European Union. One of key factors preventing the effective application of AI against the transnational corruption is the lack of the consolidated international regulatory regime for data evaluation. However, AI is ambivalent for both fighting corruption and creation new corruption pathways. Arguments in support of the distributed ledger technologies as the promising corruption-preventing techniques are provided. The study discloses factors inhibiting the scaling of the implementation of blockchain or smart contracts as mechanisms of reducing the risks of corruption. The need to develop international standards for the use of AI technologies in the fight against corruption practices is emphasized. The creation of a transnational structure with appropriate rule-making and control powers in this area becomes extremely important.
Maria A. Egorova, Д. В. Пономарева, О. В. Кожевина
In this article, the authors consider the features of smart contracts as a fundamentally new model of contractual relations, relevant in view of the comprehensive digitalization of various spheres of life. Smart contracts are considered as the so-called self-executing contracts, in which the terms of the agreement between the buyer and the seller are directly spelled out in lines of code. At the same time, the code and the agreement associated with it exist in a distributed decentralized blockchain network. Smart contracts guarantee a very specific set of results, which makes it possible not to resort to litigation, in fact, avoiding conflict situations. The authors analyze various types of smart contracts, problems associated with changing the terms of a smart contract, and limitations connected with the use of such a model of contractual relations. The article draws attention to the fact that the automated execution of the terms of the contract will cause problems, because the lines of code, unlike a traditional written contract, cannot be changed with the same ease. In conclusion, the authors discuss the impact of digitalization processes on the development of smart contracts.
The development of modern technologies has led to the creation of a new way to conclude agreements through automated systems — smart contracts, the emergence of which was largely due to the development of distributed ledger technology (Blockchain). The advantage of the system of “smart contracts” is the ability to make transactions directly with counterparties, without resorting to the services of banks, payment system operators and other transaction operators, which, in turn, reduces costs. Smart contracts can also be used during remote electronic voting, allowing you to solve problems related to security, reliability of data and their protection. Many states have managed to assess the advantages of this technology, having decided to implement it in the digital economy. But before implementing the achievements of scientific and technological progress, it is necessary to understand their technical and legal nature in order to form proper legislation regulating their application. Within the framework of this work, the technical and legal features of smart contract technology are considered in comparison with the traditional form of concluding contracts, and it is also proposed to use it in economic turnover within a special platform.
U ovom radu predstavljeno je potencijalno rešenje za decentralizovanu aplikaciju za sportsku kladionicu u okviru Ethereum blockchain mreže. Objašnjenje su teorijske osnove i navedeni izazovi koji se susreću u ovom domenu. Opisane su terminologije vezane za ovu decentralizovanu aplikaciju kao što su blockchain tehnologija, Ethereum blockchain, koncept pametnih ugovora, Oracle entiteti i Solidity jezik. Na kraju je prikazan model i opis implementacije sistema, kao i završna zaključena zapažanja.