Insights UK Jurisdiction Taskforce publishes consultation on Cryptoassets, Distributed Ledger Technology and Smart Contracts

With the aim of providing clarity in this area, the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce (UKJT) has published a consultation paper to identify key issues of legal uncertainty regarding cryptoassets, DLT and smart contracts.

The UKJT is one of the six taskforces of the LawTech Delivery Panel, which was established by the UK Government, the Judiciary and the Law Society. The UKJT has as its overarching objective the promotion of the use of technology in the UK’s legal sector. Its objective is to demonstrate that English law and the jurisdiction of England and Wales together provide a state-of-the-art foundation for the development of DLT, smart contracts and associated technologies.

The UKJT is coordinating the preparation of an authoritative legal statement on the status of cryptoassets and smart contracts under English private law. The intention is that the legal statement will either demonstrate that English private law already provides sufficiently certain foundations, or highlight particular areas of uncertainty that may need to be clarified.

The consultation addresses two key questions, each with ancillary questions attached:

  1. legal status of cryptoassets: under what circumstances, if any, would a cryptoasset and a private key be classed as personal property?
  2. enforceability of smart contracts: in what circumstances is a smart contract capable of giving rise to binding legal obligations, enforceable in accordance with its terms (a “smart legal contract”)?

Annex 2 of the document provides an overview and key features of DLT and Annex 3 sets out the key features of cryptoassets.

As part of the consultation, the UKJT is hosting a public event on 4 June 2019 in London. The deadline for responding to the consultation is 21 June 2019. To access the consultation and for further details on how to register for the public event, click here.

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