Smart Contract as a Novel Method of Contracting: Many Unanswered Legal Questions
Smart contracts have shed light on a new era of contract law, which necessitates a proper legal response to address their unique characteristics, including automation, self-enforcement, coded, immutability, and irreversibility. While these features offer significant legal and practical benefits, the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Hasanuddin University
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Hasanuddin Law Review |
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| Online Access: | http://pasca.unhas.ac.id/ojs/index.php/halrev/article/view/5061 |
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| author | Omar Farouk Al Mashhour Ahmad Shamsul Abd Aziz Nor Azlina Mohd Noor |
| author_facet | Omar Farouk Al Mashhour Ahmad Shamsul Abd Aziz Nor Azlina Mohd Noor |
| author_sort | Omar Farouk Al Mashhour |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Smart contracts have shed light on a new era of contract law, which necessitates a proper legal response to address their unique characteristics, including automation, self-enforcement, coded, immutability, and irreversibility. While these features offer significant legal and practical benefits, they raised critical legal questions. The study aims to identify the legal challenges resulting from the implementation of smart contracts through an in-depth examination of various key aspects. To achieve the intended objective, the study adopted qualitative research utilising the library method and analysing data descriptively and analytically. The study revealed that applying the current conventional contract laws is inadequate and would create a bundle of unprecedented legal questions related to all the life cycle of the contracts, such as legal existence, formation and enforcement, jurisdictional issue, mechanism, unlawful activities, as well as the third parties. The study recommended establishing a specialised framework to address various issues, including the establishment of a regulatory and supervisory body, legislative clarification on various aspects of smart contracts’ such as exchange of will, place, and time, coding language and coding errors, essential functions, jurisdiction and enforcement, ADR, external partners such as Oracle and coding experts, in addition to other matters pertaining to validity and admissibility. Future studies may focus on using these questions as a way to measure the viability of their law to address the emergence of smart contracts. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b9cb698eb2224e4897f5caae60ab621e |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2442-9880 2442-9899 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Hasanuddin University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Hasanuddin Law Review |
| spelling | doaj-art-b9cb698eb2224e4897f5caae60ab621e2025-08-20T02:48:47ZengHasanuddin UniversityHasanuddin Law Review2442-98802442-98992025-01-0111112710.20956/halrev.v11i1.5061982Smart Contract as a Novel Method of Contracting: Many Unanswered Legal QuestionsOmar Farouk Al Mashhour0Ahmad Shamsul Abd Aziz1Nor Azlina Mohd Noor2Department of Business and Management, Faculty of Administrative Science and Economics, Tishk International University, Erbil, Kurdistan RegionThe Northern University of Malaysia (UUM)The Northern University of Malaysia (UUM)Smart contracts have shed light on a new era of contract law, which necessitates a proper legal response to address their unique characteristics, including automation, self-enforcement, coded, immutability, and irreversibility. While these features offer significant legal and practical benefits, they raised critical legal questions. The study aims to identify the legal challenges resulting from the implementation of smart contracts through an in-depth examination of various key aspects. To achieve the intended objective, the study adopted qualitative research utilising the library method and analysing data descriptively and analytically. The study revealed that applying the current conventional contract laws is inadequate and would create a bundle of unprecedented legal questions related to all the life cycle of the contracts, such as legal existence, formation and enforcement, jurisdictional issue, mechanism, unlawful activities, as well as the third parties. The study recommended establishing a specialised framework to address various issues, including the establishment of a regulatory and supervisory body, legislative clarification on various aspects of smart contracts’ such as exchange of will, place, and time, coding language and coding errors, essential functions, jurisdiction and enforcement, ADR, external partners such as Oracle and coding experts, in addition to other matters pertaining to validity and admissibility. Future studies may focus on using these questions as a way to measure the viability of their law to address the emergence of smart contracts.http://pasca.unhas.ac.id/ojs/index.php/halrev/article/view/5061blockchaindecentralisedlegislationimmutableself-enforcedsmart contract |
| spellingShingle | Omar Farouk Al Mashhour Ahmad Shamsul Abd Aziz Nor Azlina Mohd Noor Smart Contract as a Novel Method of Contracting: Many Unanswered Legal Questions Hasanuddin Law Review blockchain decentralised legislation immutable self-enforced smart contract |
| title | Smart Contract as a Novel Method of Contracting: Many Unanswered Legal Questions |
| title_full | Smart Contract as a Novel Method of Contracting: Many Unanswered Legal Questions |
| title_fullStr | Smart Contract as a Novel Method of Contracting: Many Unanswered Legal Questions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Smart Contract as a Novel Method of Contracting: Many Unanswered Legal Questions |
| title_short | Smart Contract as a Novel Method of Contracting: Many Unanswered Legal Questions |
| title_sort | smart contract as a novel method of contracting many unanswered legal questions |
| topic | blockchain decentralised legislation immutable self-enforced smart contract |
| url | http://pasca.unhas.ac.id/ojs/index.php/halrev/article/view/5061 |
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