Abstract
Lawmakers and theorists around the world are debating the need for a new set of rules to support transactions in a distributed ledger. It is particularly important for civil law countries because they rely on specific legislation provisions in order to formalize what has already appeared in practice. The same situation applies to smart contracts. The article addresses the appropriate legal response to smart contracts as a type of new digital contractual relationship. The author analyses their characteristics in Belarus, in the EU countries (Portugal, Germany, and Italy), and Russia, where the smart contract term has not yet appeared in legislation. Based on a review of the current legal approach to smart contracts in these countries it is determined whether new e-commerce trends towards creating a fundamentally different environment require a new legal approach.
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Notes
- 1.
Szczerbowski (2017).
- 2.
Kerikmäe and Rull (2016).
- 3.
Cornell and Werbach (2017).
- 4.
Decree No. 8 of December 21, 2017 “On Development of Digital Economy”.
- 5.
Decree No. 8 of December 21, 2017 “On Development of Digital Economy”.
- 6.
Federal Law No. 149-FZ of July 27, 2006 “On Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information”, art. 2, (as amended up to Federal Law No. 327-FZ of November 25, 2017).
- 7.
eSignature Legality in Portugal, 2018, https://www.docusign.com/how-it-works/legality/global/portugal. Accessed 01 September 2021.
- 8.
The Financial Technology Law Review: Portugal, 2020, https://thelawreviews.co.uk/title/the-financial-technology-law-review/portugal. Accessed 01 September 2021.
- 9.
Distributed Ledger Technologies and Smart Contracts in Italy, 2019, https://blockchain.bakermckenzie.com/2019/02/28/distributed-ledger-technologies-and-smart-contracts-in-italy/. Accessed 01 September 2021.
- 10.
Regulation (EU) N°910/2014.
- 11.
Directive 2000/31/EC, Official Journal L 178, 17/07/2000 P. 0001 – 0016.
- 12.
Simont Braun (2018).
- 13.
https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/180308-action-plan-fintech_en. Accessed 01 September 2021.
- 14.
https://www.eba.europa.eu/esas-publish-joint-report-on-regulatory-sandboxes-and-innovation-hubs. Accessed 01 September 2021.
- 15.
BGH, Urteil vom 16.10.2012 - X ZR 37/12 (= NJW 2013, 598).
- 16.
Siedler (2016).
- 17.
Draft Bill No. 419059-7 of March 20, 2018 “On Digital Financial Assets”.
- 18.
Draft Bill No. 424632-7 of March 26, 2018 “On amendments to Parts First, Second and Fourth of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (on Digital Rights)”.
- 19.
Expert Report Prepared by Employees of the Alexeev Private Law Research Centre under the President of the Russian Federation for the Non-Commercial Organization Foundation for Development of the Center for Elaboration and Commercialization of New Technologies, 2017. https://sk.ru/foundation/legal/m/sklegal02/21551/download.aspx. Accessed 01 September 2021.
- 20.
Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Part One) No. 51-FZ of November 30, 1994, art. 434.
- 21.
Federal Law No. 149-FZ of July 27, 2006 “On Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information”, art. 2, (as amended up to Federal Law No. 327-FZ of November 25, 2017).
- 22.
Federal Law No. 149-FZ of July 27, 2006 “On Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information”, art. 2, (as amended up to Federal Law No. 327-FZ of November 25, 2017).
- 23.
Cong and Zhiguo (2018).
- 24.
Calcaterra and Kaal (2018).
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Zainutdinova, E. (2022). Smart Contracts in the Civil Law Countries: The Legislative Analysis and Regulation Perspectives. In: Borges, G., Sorge, C. (eds) Law and Technology in a Global Digital Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90513-2_16
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