Legal Regulation of Smart Сontracts

Abstract

The article discusses the concept, main features and scope of smart contracts, and their relationship with traditional institutions of civil law. Smart contracts can find applications in almost all areas of life in the future. As is often the case with new technologies, the use of smart contracts also raises a number of law issues. Blockchain technology allows not only to create new means of payment, but also to autonomously manage almost any process. It can be used for individual contracts and even the creation of entire autonomous decentralized systems. In this regard, the main purpose of this study is to resolve the question of whether smart contracts are contracts in the legal sense, how they arise, how they should be classified according to the law of obligations, and what are the consequences of default. Against this background, the task of the author of this article is twofold. On the one hand, we are talking about the presentation of the main features of smart contracts in general terms, while, in addition to the advantages and functions, areas of application are of particular interest. After that, an attempt will be made to introduce smart contracts into civil law, which, in addition to the main issues of enforcement and contracting, will touch on some subsequent issues. As a result, it will become clear that civil law in general is well suited to smart contracts. However, there is some area of uncertainty, so additional legislative changes should be considered. To achieve the goal of the study, the author used empirical methods of comparison, description, interpretation; theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic. Private scientific methods were used: legal and dogmatic and the method of interpretation of legal norms. The author comes to the following conclusions. Smart contracts are programs that carry out legally significant actions according to predetermined algorithms and are suitable for contractual relations. From a legal point of view, smart contracts can either be the subject of a contractual agreement, or generate it on their own.