The impact of blockchain technologies and smart contracts on dispute resolution: Arbitration and court litigation at the crossroads

Development summary

This peer-reviewed article by Pietro Ortolani, published in the Uniform Law Review, addresses the twofold impact of blockchain technologies and smart contracts on dispute resolution. According to the source, these technologies may allow parties to devise self-enforcing arbitral systems that largely bypass recognition-and-enforcement procedures, while blockchain-related ICO disputes have also prompted jurisdictional questions for state courts, given the difficulty of reconciling blockchain’s decentralised structure with the territorial approach used to allocate jurisdiction.