Smart Contract Enforceability

Since its initial release on July 30, 2015, the Ethereum blockchain has undergone several upgrades which have sought to democratize the use of the platform in various sectors, including legal, intellectual property, financial and banking sectors. In the legal sector, smart contracts have introduced a novel way for contracting parties to record and enforce their rights and obligations of a contract. Therefore, across multiple legal jurisdictions, this has begged the question of whether such smart contracts are legally enforceable. Pierre Dushime, a third-year McGill Law student, takes to task this question of the legal enforceability of smart contracts in Canada. In his article, Dushime examines the enforceability of smart contracts under Canadian common law and Quebec’s civil law. The paper’s main argument is that although smart contracts are likely to be legally enforceable, their full adoption in commercial contexts is still limited due to three main reasons. Against this background, it suggested – and reasonably sufficient – that smart contracts are (for the time being) more commercially suitable when used in addition to traditionally written contracts than when used alone.

Link to article: https://www.blockchainatmcgill.xyz/post/the-enforceability-of-smart-contracts-under-canadian-contract-law