Anastasios A. Antoniou, partner at Antoniou McCollum & Co.
revisits the divide between code and law through the prism of
blockchain technology. This article was first published as
a post on Oxford Business Law
Blog.
Code and law have been entangled in a silent tension ever since
the advent of cyberspace. The centralised architecture of
cyberspace paved the way for law to prevail. The latest
manifestation of this tension, however, appears to be opening up a
Pandora's box. Blockchain and law are on a silent collision
course that must be addressed.
This post argues that in bridging the divide between code and
law in blockchain, a radical rethink of regulation is
imperative.
The primary source of friction between blockchain and law can be
traced to the implied proposition that code-driven frameworks
running on blockchains can and should operate outside our
jurisdictional legal orders. In Blockchain and the Law
(2018), De Filippi and Wright refer to the
