The U.K. Law Commission will review
legal frameworks to ensure that British courts remain a
“competitive” choice for businesses that use smart contracts. The announcement was made in
the Commission’s 2018 report released July 19.
The Law Commission was established in 1965 with the main tasks
of monitoring the laws of the U.K. and recommending reforms.
According to the Commission, smart contract protocols presage
an era of trustless and more efficient business transactions that
compels lawmakers to ensure that existing frameworks have the
necessary flexibility and clarity to keep pace with innovation.
Initial research into the matter is reportedly due to begin this
summer, after the body concluded there to be “a compelling case for
a Law Commission scoping study” to highlight areas for
clarification and potential reform.
As a Cointelegraph expert take has outlined, smart contracts are
increasingly being recognized as a major disruptive force to the
legal sphere. The immutable, time-stamped data generated on a
blockchain provides an auditable trail with
which smart contracts interact according to binding, pre-specified
rules -- spawning the crypto adage, ‘code is law.’
The U.K. has taken stock of blockchain’s wide-reaching
potential, with members of parliament recently calling on the
government to make the new technology a priority. Matt Hancock, a
Conservative Party MP, has predicted the “monumental impact” blockchain
will have across “vast areas of public life,” including the legal
system.
This July, a fresh report indicated that the U.K. has the
potential to become a ‘leader’ in blockchain technology and the
crypto economy by 2022, noting that over £500 million in
investments were made into British blockchain companies in
2017-2018.