Remember internet boom of 1990s and how its usage changed the way we look at world? Blockchain technology (BT) is the Internet of present time. Studies highlighting ways to leverage the benefits of BT are being carried out aggressively and it's of keen interest for major industries and industrialists. Every new research in the area indicate various benefits of BT related to performance improvements. Therefore, to evaluate the enablers of blockchain adoption in smart contracts becomes essential and of great importance. For consumer driven economy like India, where implementation and adoption of BT has been sluggish, BT implementation can give strategic advantage to any industry, making it relevant to evaluate the feasibility and the importance of blockchain smart contracts in the electronic industry, which occupy a large share of the market. There are different enablers for BT adoption in different industries, and this study focuses on identifying and establishing the relationships between the enabler in the electronic supply chain. Eight enablers were considered after conducting a survey of the literature before applying the Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) technique to understand the complex relationships between the identified enablers. The result of the detailed analysis, highlighted traceability as the most significant enabler among others for BT-related smart contract adoption for the electronic industry. This result is of immense importance for managers in identifying and developing policies and strategies related to BT implementation for the firm.
Smart contracts, as a newly developed technology, may radically re‐shape traditional contractual relationships, transferring the power to perform and enforce from contractors to robots. This paper provides a framework which seeks to ensure that this transfer of power does not undermine vital consumer law values. The starting point is the well‐accepted idea of consumer law being based on values aiming to protect consumers as weaker parties in their relationships with traders and this will be built on using various new arguments. First it will be argued that any brave new world of smart contracts will still need the law to provide the sorts of rights it already does: smart contracts may enhance data preferences and improve choice up to a point, but they cannot produce market choices replacing the need for such legally mandated rights. Next it will be shown that to reflect underpinning protection values, some such rights must operate in particular ways. This includes rights concerning information and contract cancellation, conformity standards, remedies, and unfair terms: ‘time sensitive’ rights that must be available at certain stages of the relationship.
Aim . To review the legal neologisms of corporate documents, in particular, smart contracts, recorded in fiction and industry literature, in order to compare the ways of word formation of neologisms from articles of the Civil Code (Code Civil) of the French and court decisions. Methodology . In the course of the study, a continuous sampling of legal neologisms from authentic French texts published between 2008 and 2019 was carried out, on the basis of which the most typical legal neologisms were identified. To determine the extent of their distribution in jurisprudence, corpus analysis was used (French-language corpus and English-language Google Ngram Viewer corpus for 2019). In order to determine the methods of word formation and compare these neologisms with the terms recorded in the dictionary, semantic analysis was used to identify the meanings of neologism terms, as well as descriptive and comparative general linguistic methods. Results . As a result of the conducted research, trends have been established and the main ways of word formation of legal neologisms associated with the use of smart contracts of the modern French special language in the period 2008–2019 have been identified. Research implications . The results of the study can be used for further application in the field of modern contract law, contracts based on blockchain and agreements in the electronic form, analysis and prediction.
Aidin Rasti, Amal Ahmed Anda, Sofana Alfuhaid, Alireza Parvizimosaed · 8 authors
Complementary materials for the paper that extends the conference paper : "Symboleo2SC: From Legal Contract Specifications to Smart Contracts" <code>symboleo-js-core</code> includes the implementation of the ontology of Symboleo. <code>Symboleo2SC-demo</code> includes the five evaluated Symboleo contracts, their generated smart contracts, and their unit tests.
Contrats intelligents pour les enchères : de l'évaluation expérimentale à la confidentialité La sécurité et la transparence des blockchains semblent fournir un environnement adaptépour les enchères. Nous nous focalisons sur l'enchère Vickrey-Clarke-Groves pour larecherche sponsorisée (VCG) pour évaluer cette hypothèse. Nous proposons et utilisonsune méthodologie pour la comparaison de différents blockchains du point de vue descontrats intelligents (smart contracts). En utilisant VCG, nous avons comparé Ethereumet Tezos ainsi que les mises à jour récentes d’Ethereum sous la forme d'Ethereum Mergeet Polygon POS. Enfin, nous analysons les conséquences du manque de confidentialitédes blockchains dans une enchère telle que VCG, en proposant trois nouveauxalgorithmes pour en atténuer les effets négatifs.
Opvolging van tokenhouders in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: een vennootschapsrechtelijke duiding Auteurs schrijven in het kader van het honoursprogramma Law Extra van de Radboud Universiteit over de opvolging van tokenhouders in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO’s). Er wordt duiding gegeven aan de plaats van DAO’s in het Nederlands vennootschapsrecht, waarbij bijzondere aandacht uitgaat naar de opvolging in personenvennootschappen.
Enas Qutieshat, Bassam Al-Tarawneh, Osamah Al Naimat
Contract theory is considered one of the legal theories most affected by technological development. Technology has become a challenge and a test of the extent to which the provisions of the law related to the contract on the basis whether such theory is able to respond to technical development. This paper deals with smart contracts in the light of the Jordanian civil law texts and the Jordanian electronic transactions law, to determine whether the current legal texts can recognize the legality of such contracts on the one hand and the ability of the Jordanian legal system to apply this type of contracts. It has been concluded that the smart contract cannot be considered a contract unless the basic pillars of any of the contracts stipulated in the civil law are available. The Jordanian Electronic Transactions Law until the moment of writing does not regulate smart contracts based on automated implementation of the terms of the contract without human intervention, as it covers only the stage of contract creation. In addition, the mechanism of creating and implementing this type of contract constitutes a legal challenge to most of the rules governing the contract in Jordanian law.
Artificial Intelligence and blockchain technology now influence the intellectual property environment. For example, machine learning is now regularly used in trademark and patent searches in IP databases. Machine learning implementations in different IP areas, including patent tracking, copyright evaluation, and trademark comparisons, can now be seen more often. A vast range of LP notary implementations are proposed using blockchain technologies, and new networks emerge, using both AIs and blockchains to build new IP communities. The growth of such technology in LPP is mainly driven by the IT industries, particularly technology entrepreneurs. In the context of the non-registered IP rights such as copyright (which under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and in many jurisdictions is not registrable) and unregistered design rights, blockchain technology can play an important role, too, because it can prove its conception, use and qualification (for example the countries where the design was first marketed and originality). Uploading the author or creator’s work and design data into a blockchain would produce a time-stamped record and solid proof of originality.So, IPO has laid the groundwork for the technology’s fusion into the IP ecosystem. Several other possible uses include ledger management, the creation of a monitoring authority to track the use of IP properties in the market and commercialization for investors via a bidding system. It will provide innovators with a centralized, government-backed market to attract investors and technology titans.
1. L’évolution des techniques et du droit. Il y a presque vingt ans, le législateur national accueillit favorablement les évolutions de l’économie numérique, en consacrant le commerce électronique comme « l’activité économique par laquelle une personne propose ou assure à distance et par voie électronique la fourniture de biens ou de services »1. Le droit européen participe également activement
Spanish Abstract: El presente estudio examina los smart contracts, la tecnología blockchain que los posibilita y la conexión del objeto del contrato mediante el Internet de las cosas. A estos efectos, se examinará doctrinalmente el concepto de smart contract, las aplicaciones de la tecnología blockchain en materia contractual, y la formación y ejecución del contrato, prestando especial atención al futuro papel del Internet de las cosas. English Abstract: This study examines smart contracts, the blockchain technology that makes them possible and the connection of the object of the contract through the Internet of Things. For this purpose, the concept of smart contract, the applications of blockchain technology in contractual matters, and the formation and execution of the contract will be examined doctrinally, paying special attention to the future role of the Internet of Things.
While the general employment of smart contracts has seen growing interest lately, its application in the legal domain raised several concerns . One of the main issues is that these contracts are often written in computer code, thus are difficult to understand for the average person: this could undermine their enforceability before national courts . \nThe present work proposes an approach for solving this lack of transparency: we shall compare and employ declarative programming languages that have already proven to bring helpful advantages when writing smart contracts , such as Logical English and LPS, both based on Prolog, as well as domain-specific imperative languages, such as Stipula , that allow for the codification of a smart legal contract both understandable for the average person and readable by the machine. \nWe will give an outline of the interplay between natural language and programming languages, and show how the lack of understanding reflects on the current employment of smart legal contracts. Fundamental to our reasoning will also be the distinction between B2B and B2C contractual relationships, where the EU principles of clarity and understandability of contract terms come into the picture. Moreover, we believe that uncertainty on whether the contract will execute the code as intended by the parties will negatively impact the trust that people place in such technology. \nWe will demonstrate a methodology for writing smart legal contracts in such a way as to improve both the understanding of their contents, by providing a direct transposition in code of the relevant clauses; and the intelligibility of their execution, by implementing the clauses directly, with no further coding required. This shall be done through Logical English, a programming language in which code is represented using a controlled form of the English language. Our intention is to showcase how to build trust in smart legal contracts, moving through a brief literature review of the proposed solutions, following with a demonstration of the drafting of the contract in a computable language understandable by legal experts and citizens alike. We shall utilize a running example to compare the methods we have applied, looking at the advantages, disadvantages and their effect on the overall explainability of the program. \nTo conclude, we shall compare our results with the desired effect on transparency and see how these may help the general goal of bridging natural language and computer code, especially as far as consumer contracts are concerned. We shall test whether it is possible for the consumer to contribute to the execution process, moving from the written text directly to the computable code, thus strengthening the connection between the contracts and the automation. To reach a common standard, and employ this technology in the legal field, it is necessary to link all parties more closely, be they businesses, consumers, or legal professionals, by providing a way for all to communicate directly with the Smart Legal Contract.
Ada Bagozi, Devis Bianchini, Valeria De Antonellis, Massimiliano Garda · 5 authors
With the advent of blockchain technology, many interorganisational collaborative processes that demand trust requirements (e.g., food supply chain, smart grid energy distribution and clinical trials) are being implemented as decentralised applications (DApps). Indeed, blockchain technology provides decentralised control and immutable transaction history, thereby improving security and accountability between parties. In this vision paper, we consider cooperative processes where a subject, which acts as a regulator of the process, promotes the use of blockchain for increasing transparency, while reducing the burden in controlling trustworthiness among participants. To the scope, the regulator provides a registry of basic smart contracts, including both actual deployed ones and code templates, that can be used and extended by the process stakeholders (e.g., retailers, energy providers, researchers) to build up DApps. The adoption of a blockchain and the definition of the registry favour the compliance with best practices and obligations demanded by the regulator, as well as that all relevant information and documents cannot be tampered. To support semantic-based smart contract search in the registry, we propose a multi-perspective framework that, in addition to classification and technical characteristics of smart contracts, takes into account the past experience of developers who have used smart contracts of the registry to develop DApps.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have become a hot topic, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. With this new wave of digital assets, comes decisions about how to govern their transfer from user to user. Between common law and the Uniform Commercial Code, depending on the type of NFT that is transferred, there is a sliding scale of when common law would govern and when UCC would govern each respective transaction. In this paper, NFTs are classified into seven distinct categories and the laws that govern their transactions are discussed with examples.
Blockchains and smart contracts are novel concepts that provide unique challenges to legal systems. This research outlines the extent to which these new and innovative technologies create potentially unhinging effects for the laws of contract in Europe. It does so by taking three steps. First of all, in light of the transboundary nature of the technology, this research looks at French law, German law, English law, and Dutch law to analyse the impact on the different systems of contract law. Whilste doing so it looks at formation of contracts, interpretation of contracts, and vitiation of contracts. Secondly, it analyses the impact of the technology on the European rules on unfair terms in consumer contracts. This research argues that the existing rules on unfair terms in consumer contracts should be applied to smart legal agreements in business-to-consumer relations. Lastly it analyses the existing European private international rules on the basis of which jurisdiction and applicable law is determined. In this respect the research concludes that the vast majority of these European rules are ‘smart contract’-proof.
The emergence of smart contracts and the increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) have introduced new dimensions to traditional contract law. This research paper aims to explore the profound impact of smart contracts and AI on the foundations and principles of contract law. It examines the benefits, challenges, and legal implications that arise from the adoption of these technological advancements. By analysing relevant case law, scholarly literature, and regulatory frameworks, this paper provides insights into the potential transformation of contract law in the era of smart contracts and AI. This research paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the impact of smart contracts and AI on traditional contract law. By examining the benefits, challenges, and legal implications, it provides a comprehensive analysis that can inform policymakers, legal practitioners, and scholars in navigating the evolving landscape of contract law in the digital age.
The fundamental legal uncertainty surrounding smart contracts concerns legal enforceability of smart contracts, the questions of contractual interpretation, and dispute resolution, i.e., what avenues are open to the parties when things go wrong. Answering these questions and analysing the problems caused by smart contracts that traditional private law must tackle, demands a consideration of what role the law will allow smart contracts to play, what the limitations of formal language systems and immutability are, and the possible lack of remedies and consumer protection traditionally guarded by the state, among others. Recognizing the nature of blockchain technology and smart contracts which evades borders of jurisdictions, this article engages in a transnational legal study of smart contracts, both comparative through a comparative study of contract law, with an emphasis on common law jurisdictions, but also seeing smart contracts as functioning on the border of state and non-state law (and non-law). Ultimately, rather than to regard smart contracts as constitutive of lex cryptographica, the new ‘global law without the state’ proper, it is argued that such smart contracts which can be deemed legal contracts will be subsumed in the state‐cantered positivist private law, which in turn provokes certain theoretical, doctrinal, and practical problems.