Smart Legal Contracts, Oracles and Data Ownership
Abstract
In November 2019, the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce published its legal statement on cryptoassets and smart contracts that expressed an authoritative view that smart legal contracts are enforceable contracts under English law. In November 2021 The Law Commission concluded that the current legal framework in England and Wales is sufficiently robust and adaptable to be able to facilitate and support the use of smart legal contracts. This legal clarity makes it clear that smart legal contracts are legally binding and enforceable agreements, and also sets out the rules for creating, executing and interpreting smart contracts. This work explores potential use cases utilising DLT and smart legal contracts in the construction sector and addresses issues such as traceable and reliable data sources using oracles, and issues related to data ownership and sharing.