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ARTICLE · 24 OCTOBER 2024

From Code To Court And Beyond: Alternative Dispute Resolution On And Off The Blockchain

Mayer Brown
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Smart contracts are a revolutionary step in the digital and legal worlds. While not every smart contract is a legal contract, a smart contract is often a streamlined...

United StatesLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Jennifer Huang
Jennifer Huang
Brendan Harrington
Brendan Harrington
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Smart contracts are a revolutionary step in the digital and legal worlds. While not every smart contract is a legal contract, a smart contract is often a streamlined, digital expression of consent that happens to be stored on a blockchain. The growing popularity of smart contracts raises the question of not whether disputes will arise from their use but how breaches of smart contracts will be resolved. Users of smart contracts have already identified arbitration as a mechanism well suited to the novel needs of blockchain disputes. This article explores the role of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in smart contract disputes, with a focus on the United States.

Despite their appellation, smart contracts are neither smart nor always—or even often—legally binding contracts. A smart contract is a computer program or transaction protocol that automatically executes certain actions once certain terms are met. A useful analogy is to that of the vending machine: once the

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