Blockchain and Private International Law

This book brings together expert views that, taken together, speak to the desirability, necessity and feasibility of unified rules to resolve Private International Law issues arising in the context of the digital economy.

The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Blockchain is the first global mechanism for the transfer and storage of value. Despite being conceived as an alternative to state and law, the technology and its use cases raise many legal questions, most notably, regarding jurisdiction and applicable law with respect to transactions and assets recorded on the blockchain. The issue is complex given the decentralised nature of the network. In this volume, academics and practitioners from various countries try to provide detailed answers to these questions as they relate to crypto-assets, cryptocurrencies, crypto derivatives, stablecoins, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs), as well as specific transactions and issues, such as property rights, secured transactions, smart contracts and bankruptcy. With specific chapters on national approaches (Germany, Japan, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, United States), the volume explores the need and possibility for legal harmonisation of these issues through global fora, such as the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) UNIDROIT.

Auteur
Andrea Bonomi, PhD (1992 and 1994), is a Professor of Comparative Law and Private International Law at the University of Lausanne and the Director of the Centre for Comparative, European and International Law. He is also a Director of the LL.M. in International Business Law.

Matthias Lehmann, PhD (2003 and 2011), Habilitation (Germany) (2008), is a Professor of Private, Private International, Civil, and Comparative Law at the University of Vienna. His main interest lies in cross-border and comparative aspects of banking and financial law.

Shaheeza Lalani, PhD (2011), University of Lausanne, is the Executive Director of the LL.M. Programme at the University of Lausanne. She has published many articles on Private International Law and Comparative Law and has edited several books on International Arbitration.