Skip to main content
PRINT EDITION

Contracting in the Age of Smart Contracts

By March 1, 2021July 22nd, 2022No Comments

Abstract: Smart contracts lie at the heart of blockchain technology. There are two principal problems, however, with existing smart contracts: first, the enforceability of smart contracts remains ambiguous. Second, smart contracts are limited in scope and capability barring more complex contracts from being executed via blockchain technology. Drawing from the existing literature on contracts and smart contracting, this Article suggests new approaches to address these two problems. First, it proposes a framework based on reliance-based contracting to analyze smart contracts. Second, the Article analyzes the seismic shifts in contractual disputes, and offers new insights into its features including decentralized decision-making, network-based dispute resolution, and extrajudicial enforcement of decisions. The Article concludes that users’ reliance should be the basis for analysis of smart contracts and its associated dispute resolution mechanism.

Download the Full Article

Other Articles from WLR Print Edition

June 1, 2024 in PRINT EDITION

Disparately Disabled: Advocating for All Federal Courts of Appeals to Make Disparate Impact Claims Cognizable Under Federal Disability Rights Law

Abstract: People with disabilities have the same rights and deserve to enjoy the same privileges as everyone else. However, people with disabilities face societal inequities that hinder their full participation…
Read More
June 1, 2024 in PRINT EDITION

Internet Drug Prohibition and the Opioid Overdose Crisis

Abstract: The Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act (Ryan Haight Act) prohibits controlled substance tele-prescribing when it occurs without a preliminary in-person medical evaluation. This Article details the Ryan…
Read More
June 1, 2024 in PRINT EDITION

Radical Visions for the Law of Peace: How W.E.B. Du Bois and the Black Antiwar Movement Reimagined Civil Rights and the Laws of War and Peace

Abstract: This Article reconstructs the history of Black antiwar activism in the twentieth-century United States and argues that Black antiwar activists played a significant but largely forgotten role in the…
Read More