Blockchain and Smart Contract for Contract Management (Dispute Prevention, Generation and Resolution)

A workshop on developing an ODR framework was organized by the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Economic Committee on 3-4 March 2018 at Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea). I was invited by the Department of Justice of Hong Kong to deliver two papers.

The first paper "Blockchain and Smart Contract for Contract Management (Dispute Prevention, Generation and Resolution)" (2018/SOM1/EC/WKSP2/005) is now published here on the APEC website.

The title is mouthful as it lists all the elements flagged by the organizers. After comparing and contrasting smart contracts with computer codes running in a central server, the paper notes that "smart contracts" are not contracts in the legal sense and considers their implications for contract management and dispute prevention. It alerts that the features of smart contracts are prone to generate disputes which often involve novel legal issues. The paper concludes with a brief comment on the potential use of smart contracts in dispute resolution.