PIL.OT / DEVELOPMENT
PIL.OTv0.62.2
Muhammad Asif and Maria Arshad investigate how Scots private law treats artificial intelligence and crypto-assets, distinguishing property status from the rules needed to give it practical effect. Their book addresses what the Digital Assets (Scotland) Act 2026 settles by confirming that certain digital assets can be owned as incorporeal moveable property, and which questions it leaves open.
Across four parts and sixteen chapters, the analysis covers property, contract, agency and delict, alongside trusts, security, insolvency, debt enforcement, private international law, succession and digital estates. Drawing on legislation, Scottish and English case law and the UNIDROIT Principles on Digital Assets and Private Law (2023), the authors argue that practical machinery remains incomplete, including cross-border rules and the attribution of control when AI agents hold digital wallets. They set out a reform agenda for the Scottish Government and the Scottish Law Commission.
Ownership of crypto-assets as moveable property in Scots private law, the attribution of control when AI agents hold digital wallets, and the incompleteness of the related cross-border rules.
The authors distinguish recognition of crypto-assets as property from unresolved cross-border rules and the attribution of control when AI agents hold digital wallets.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23244577
Muhammad Asif, Maria Arshad, “The Machine at the Keyboard: Artificial Intelligence and Crypto Assets in Scots Private Law”, Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2026-10-08, 10.5281/zenodo.23244577. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23244577