Will smart contracts change the world? Are they out to redefine or replace contract law as we know it today? I'm very happy to announce that my LL.M paper on Smart Contracts, addressing these questions, has a been published by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (University of London) Student Law Review.
In this paper, I investigate whether smart contracts meet the traditional requirements of a contract and what smart contracts truly add to traditional contracts. While there may be procedural challenges to undoing or enforcing specific performance under smart contracts because of their decentralised features, any substantive problems that could occur within a smart contract are imminently addressable with and needs to be subjected to the principles and remedies found in traditional contract law. Finally, I conclude with current developments in smart contracts which creates a potential platform for them to become an integral part of the common law legal system going forward.
I very much enjoyed researching this paper and learning more about Smart Contract and Blockchain during my LL.M. I'd love to here your thoughts on this topic as well and welcome your thoughts and feedback on my journal article. You can read the full journal article, for free, here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3715647
-TS