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In Perpetuity {Challenging Misperceptions of the Term ‘Smart Contract’}

Monica L Vessio, Arnold Beckmann Orcid Logo, Matt Roach Orcid Logo, Séverine Saintier, Rhys Clements, Anton Setzer Orcid Logo

European Journal of Law and Technology

Swansea University Authors: Arnold Beckmann Orcid Logo, Matt Roach Orcid Logo, Rhys Clements, Anton Setzer Orcid Logo

Abstract

In law, the term ‘smart contract’ has been used loosely with no one definition winning out. In an attempt to ameliorate this, the Law Commission of England and Wales, have added the word ‘legal’ to smart contract. No relief is found in the computer coding world, where ‘smart contract' is used t...

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Published in: European Journal of Law and Technology
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67545
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spelling v2 67545 2024-09-03 In Perpetuity {Challenging Misperceptions of the Term ‘Smart Contract’} 1439ebd690110a50a797b7ec78cca600 0000-0001-7958-5790 Arnold Beckmann Arnold Beckmann true false 9722c301d5bbdc96e967cdc629290fec 0000-0002-1486-5537 Matt Roach Matt Roach true false 0c3f0f35c1f6a1a5064b61b018515b07 Rhys Clements Rhys Clements true false 5f7695285397f46d121207120247c2ae 0000-0001-5322-6060 Anton Setzer Anton Setzer true false 2024-09-03 MACS In law, the term ‘smart contract’ has been used loosely with no one definition winning out. In an attempt to ameliorate this, the Law Commission of England and Wales, have added the word ‘legal’ to smart contract. No relief is found in the computer coding world, where ‘smart contract' is used to indicate not a single but several forms of computer codes that do not involve (necessarily) two parties. Through a sample smart contract use case, this paper identifies more than six such coding concepts and constructs which have been corroborated by the results of trend data analysis. Turning to the public, statistics gathered show a very limited understanding of the terms (and their implications) - ‘smart contract’ and ‘smart legal contract’. From these findings, this paper recognizes the inappropriateness of the use of the single term ‘smart contract’ for the many diverse iterations as used by computer scientists; theunsuitability of the use of the word ‘contract’ as part of the term ‘smart contract’ by computer scientists because of this term’s legal import; and it establishes the redundancy of the term ‘smart legal contract’. In conclusion a definition of ‘smart contract’ which only considers universal characteristics is proposed. In this we disagree with the definitions offered by the Law Commission. The definition we have proffered actively contemplates the legacy use of the term in both law and technology and is broad enough to be sector and future adaptable and technology agnostic. Journal Article European Journal of Law and Technology Smart contract, contracts, code, smart legal contracts, digital contracts, static contracts. 0 0 0 0001-01-01 COLLEGE NANME Mathematics and Computer Science School COLLEGE CODE MACS Swansea University 2024-09-03T11:13:59.8962948 2024-09-03T10:42:22.0143946 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science Monica L Vessio 1 Arnold Beckmann 0000-0001-7958-5790 2 Matt Roach 0000-0002-1486-5537 3 Séverine Saintier 4 Rhys Clements 5 Anton Setzer 0000-0001-5322-6060 6
title In Perpetuity {Challenging Misperceptions of the Term ‘Smart Contract’}
spellingShingle In Perpetuity {Challenging Misperceptions of the Term ‘Smart Contract’}
Arnold Beckmann
Matt Roach
Rhys Clements
Anton Setzer
title_short In Perpetuity {Challenging Misperceptions of the Term ‘Smart Contract’}
title_full In Perpetuity {Challenging Misperceptions of the Term ‘Smart Contract’}
title_fullStr In Perpetuity {Challenging Misperceptions of the Term ‘Smart Contract’}
title_full_unstemmed In Perpetuity {Challenging Misperceptions of the Term ‘Smart Contract’}
title_sort In Perpetuity {Challenging Misperceptions of the Term ‘Smart Contract’}
author_id_str_mv 1439ebd690110a50a797b7ec78cca600
9722c301d5bbdc96e967cdc629290fec
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5f7695285397f46d121207120247c2ae
author_id_fullname_str_mv 1439ebd690110a50a797b7ec78cca600_***_Arnold Beckmann
9722c301d5bbdc96e967cdc629290fec_***_Matt Roach
0c3f0f35c1f6a1a5064b61b018515b07_***_Rhys Clements
5f7695285397f46d121207120247c2ae_***_Anton Setzer
author Arnold Beckmann
Matt Roach
Rhys Clements
Anton Setzer
author2 Monica L Vessio
Arnold Beckmann
Matt Roach
Séverine Saintier
Rhys Clements
Anton Setzer
format Journal article
container_title European Journal of Law and Technology
institution Swansea University
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Mathematics and Computer Science - Computer Science
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description In law, the term ‘smart contract’ has been used loosely with no one definition winning out. In an attempt to ameliorate this, the Law Commission of England and Wales, have added the word ‘legal’ to smart contract. No relief is found in the computer coding world, where ‘smart contract' is used to indicate not a single but several forms of computer codes that do not involve (necessarily) two parties. Through a sample smart contract use case, this paper identifies more than six such coding concepts and constructs which have been corroborated by the results of trend data analysis. Turning to the public, statistics gathered show a very limited understanding of the terms (and their implications) - ‘smart contract’ and ‘smart legal contract’. From these findings, this paper recognizes the inappropriateness of the use of the single term ‘smart contract’ for the many diverse iterations as used by computer scientists; theunsuitability of the use of the word ‘contract’ as part of the term ‘smart contract’ by computer scientists because of this term’s legal import; and it establishes the redundancy of the term ‘smart legal contract’. In conclusion a definition of ‘smart contract’ which only considers universal characteristics is proposed. In this we disagree with the definitions offered by the Law Commission. The definition we have proffered actively contemplates the legacy use of the term in both law and technology and is broad enough to be sector and future adaptable and technology agnostic.
published_date 0001-01-01T11:13:58Z
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