Full Description
This volume explores from a legal perspective, how blockchain works. Perhaps more than ever before, this new technology requires us to take a multidisciplinary approach. The contributing authors, which include distinguished academics, public officials from important national authorities, and market operators, discuss and demonstrate how this technology can be a driver of innovation and yield positive effects in our societies, legal systems and economic/financial system. In particular, they present critical analyses of the potential benefits and legal risks of distributed ledger technology, while also assessing the opportunities offered by blockchain, and possible modes of regulating it. Accordingly, the discussions chiefly focus on the law and governance of blockchain, and thus on the paradigm shift that this technology can bring about.
Contents
Introduction: The Challenges and Opportunities of Blockchain Technologies.- Part I: Understanding Blockchain: the Legal Perspective.- Blockchain Based Organizations and the Governance of On-Chain and Off-Chain Rules: Towards Autonomous (Legal) Orders?.- The Role of Blockchain in the Public Sector: An Overview.- Some Historical and Philosophical Remarks on the Rule of Law in the Time of Automation.- Solving Cryptographic Puzzles: How to Mine?.- Part II: Governance and Regulatory Issues.- Cyberspace, Blockchain, Governance: How Technology Implies Normative Power and Regulation.- Blockchain: The Regulatory Challenges for Central Banks and Financial Sector.- Blockchain-Based Financial Investments and the Role of Regulatory Authorities: The Italian Perspective.- Are VAT Rules Really Inadequate for Distributed Ledger Technology's Transactions?.- Blockchain and Comparative Law.- Part III: Smart Contracts and Dispute Resolution.- Smart (Legal) Contracts,or: Which (Contract) Law for Smart Contracts?.- Smart (Legal) Contracts: Forum and Applicable Law Issues.- Integrating Smart Contracts with the Legacy Legal System: A US Perspective.- About Smart Contract Dispute Resolution.- Smart Contracts, ODR and the New Landscape of the Dispute Resolution Market.- Blockchain, Smart Contracts and New Certainties: What Future for Notaries?.- Part IV: The "Sustainable" Applications of Blockchain.- Introduction to Distributed Ledger Technologies for Social, Development, and Humanitarian Impact.- Blockchain, Earth Observation and Intelligent Data Systems: Implications and Opportunities for the Next Generation of Digital Services.- Justice for All: Jur's Open Layer as a Case Study, Towards a More Open and Sustainable Approach.- Blockchain and the GDPR: New Challenges for Privacy and Security.- Part V: Conclusions.- Blockchain, Law and Governance: General Conclusion.
