Synthesis of the legal text and the program code: The case of the Ricardian Contract

The aim of a contract is to provide legal certainty to the parties and to define the toolkit of remedies available in the event of a dispute. In modern business practice, the ultimate goal of a contract is to eliminate or reduce the possibility of legal liability; the issue of efficiency and effecti...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal:	Cvetković Predrag
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN SR
Publicado:	Faculty of Law, Niš 2021
Materias:	blockchain smart contracts ricardian contract contract law Law K
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/7045fdae4636452a8eb7f9f0888000ed
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:7045fdae4636452a8eb7f9f0888000ed
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:7045fdae4636452a8eb7f9f0888000ed2021-12-05T21:40:10ZSynthesis of the legal text and the program code: The case of the Ricardian Contract0350-85012560-311610.5937/zrpfn0-29556https://doaj.org/article/7045fdae4636452a8eb7f9f0888000ed2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0350-8501/2021/0350-85012190061C.pdfhttps://doaj.org/toc/0350-8501https://doaj.org/toc/2560-3116The aim of a contract is to provide legal certainty to the parties and to define the toolkit of remedies available in the event of a dispute. In modern business practice, the ultimate goal of a contract is to eliminate or reduce the possibility of legal liability; the issue of efficiency and effectiveness of contract implementation is not the primary goal. The impact of technology in the concept of contract creation, implementation and control has redefined the traditional approach which implies that contracts are written by "lawyers for lawyers". The contemporary practice bears witness of the correlation and intertwining of law and technology in a way that exceeds the scope and goes beyond the relationship between the regulator and the regulated object; in effect, technology becomes an organic element of law, its origin, application, control and development. A smart contract, as an example of the influence of technology in the field of regulating contractual relations, automatically activates the obligation, in accordance with the terms and conditions that the parties agreed upon and entered in the program code. Based on the Blockchain technology, a smart contract profoundly changes the paradigm of trust in a person with the paradigm of trust in a program code. The basic limitation of smart contracts is their capacity to convert complex legal concepts into the computational form readable by a program code. Thus, they cannot function in a pure form (entirely defined by a program code). The code needs to be complemented by text. The legal form that should bridge the gap between the smart contract and the traditional contract is the Ricardian agreement. The Ricardian contract uses the best from both worlds. On the one hand, the key terms of the contract are in software-readable program code format; on the other hand, more complex provisions that are not suitable for conversion into an algorithm are contained in additional instructions that are part of the Ricardian agreement. In terms of legal obligation, the Ricardian contract reflects exclusively and only the intention of the parties, without implying a legal obligation that could be formally established only by concluding the intended future agreement. As such, the Ricardian contract can play the role of a guide for the interpretation of the prospective agreement, which gives it a certain value in case of a dispute.Cvetković PredragFaculty of Law, Nišarticleblockchainsmart contractsricardian contractcontract lawLawKENSRZbornik Radova Pravnog Fakulteta u Nišu, Vol 60, Iss 90, Pp 61-76 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN SR
topic	blockchain smart contracts ricardian contract contract law Law K
spellingShingle	blockchain smart contracts ricardian contract contract law Law K Cvetković Predrag Synthesis of the legal text and the program code: The case of the Ricardian Contract
description	The aim of a contract is to provide legal certainty to the parties and to define the toolkit of remedies available in the event of a dispute. In modern business practice, the ultimate goal of a contract is to eliminate or reduce the possibility of legal liability; the issue of efficiency and effectiveness of contract implementation is not the primary goal. The impact of technology in the concept of contract creation, implementation and control has redefined the traditional approach which implies that contracts are written by "lawyers for lawyers". The contemporary practice bears witness of the correlation and intertwining of law and technology in a way that exceeds the scope and goes beyond the relationship between the regulator and the regulated object; in effect, technology becomes an organic element of law, its origin, application, control and development. A smart contract, as an example of the influence of technology in the field of regulating contractual relations, automatically activates the obligation, in accordance with the terms and conditions that the parties agreed upon and entered in the program code. Based on the Blockchain technology, a smart contract profoundly changes the paradigm of trust in a person with the paradigm of trust in a program code. The basic limitation of smart contracts is their capacity to convert complex legal concepts into the computational form readable by a program code. Thus, they cannot function in a pure form (entirely defined by a program code). The code needs to be complemented by text. The legal form that should bridge the gap between the smart contract and the traditional contract is the Ricardian agreement. The Ricardian contract uses the best from both worlds. On the one hand, the key terms of the contract are in software-readable program code format; on the other hand, more complex provisions that are not suitable for conversion into an algorithm are contained in additional instructions that are part of the Ricardian agreement. In terms of legal obligation, the Ricardian contract reflects exclusively and only the intention of the parties, without implying a legal obligation that could be formally established only by concluding the intended future agreement. As such, the Ricardian contract can play the role of a guide for the interpretation of the prospective agreement, which gives it a certain value in case of a dispute.
format	article
author	Cvetković Predrag
author_facet	Cvetković Predrag
author_sort	Cvetković Predrag
title	Synthesis of the legal text and the program code: The case of the Ricardian Contract
title_short	Synthesis of the legal text and the program code: The case of the Ricardian Contract
title_full	Synthesis of the legal text and the program code: The case of the Ricardian Contract
title_fullStr	Synthesis of the legal text and the program code: The case of the Ricardian Contract
title_full_unstemmed	Synthesis of the legal text and the program code: The case of the Ricardian Contract
title_sort	synthesis of the legal text and the program code: the case of the ricardian contract
publisher	Faculty of Law, Niš
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/7045fdae4636452a8eb7f9f0888000ed
work_keys_str_mv	AT cvetkovicpredrag synthesisofthelegaltextandtheprogramcodethecaseofthericardiancontract
_version_	1718370948670816256

Synthesis of the legal text and the program code: The case of the Ricardian Contract

Ejemplares similares