What do you think?
Rate this book
Smart Legal Contracts: Computable Law in Theory and Practice
Smart Legal Computable Law in Theory and Practice is a landmark investigation into one of the most important trends at the interface of law and the effort to harness emerging digital technologies to change the way that parties form and perform contracts. While developments in distributed ledger technology have brought the topic of 'smart contracts' into the mainstream of legal attention, this volume takes a broader approach to ask how
computers can be used in the contracting process.
This book assesses how contractual promises are expressed in software and how code-based artefacts can be incorporated within more conventional legal structures. With incisive contributions from members of the judiciary, legal scholars, practitioners, and computer scientists, this book sets out to frame the borders of an emerging area of law and start a more productive dialogue between the various disciplines involved in the evolution of contracts as software. It provides the first step towards
a more disciplined approach to computational contracts that avoids the techno-legal ambiguities of 'smart contracts' and reveals an emerging taxonomy of approaches to encoding contracts in whole or in part. Conceived and written during a time when major legal systems began to engage with the advent
of contracts in computable form, and aimed at a fundamental level of enquiry, this collection will provide essential insight into future trends and will provide a point of orientation for future scholarship and innovation.
computers can be used in the contracting process.
This book assesses how contractual promises are expressed in software and how code-based artefacts can be incorporated within more conventional legal structures. With incisive contributions from members of the judiciary, legal scholars, practitioners, and computer scientists, this book sets out to frame the borders of an emerging area of law and start a more productive dialogue between the various disciplines involved in the evolution of contracts as software. It provides the first step towards
a more disciplined approach to computational contracts that avoids the techno-legal ambiguities of 'smart contracts' and reveals an emerging taxonomy of approaches to encoding contracts in whole or in part. Conceived and written during a time when major legal systems began to engage with the advent
of contracts in computable form, and aimed at a fundamental level of enquiry, this collection will provide essential insight into future trends and will provide a point of orientation for future scholarship and innovation.
527 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 4, 2022
3 people are currently reading
2 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 30, 2025
This volume feels like something of a missed opportunity. Many of the chapters overlap in content, resulting in a lot of repetition. This begina to feel rather laboured after the third exposition of the difference between a smart contract and a smart legal contract. A stronger editorial approach could have avoided this, leaving more room to examine the concrete issues on which practitioners will need to advise clients. Most of the essays are more academic or theoretical than practical. Simon Gleeson's contribution on the consequences of mistake in a smart legal contract stands out as the most useful from my perspective as a litigation lawyer.
Displaying 1 of 1 review