Description
Book SynopsisThis important and topical book provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges raised by blockchain from the perspective of public law. It considers the ways in which traditional categories of public law such as sovereignty, citizenship and territory are shaped, as well as the impact of blockchain technology on fundamental rights and democratic values.
Articulated in two sections, the first analyses the opportunities and the challenges that blockchain and distributed ledger technologies raise in the field of public and constitutional law, while the second highlights challenges derived from the intersection between blockchain and other legal fields such as contract law, financial law and antitrust law. A wide variety of expert contributions offer further examinations of the constitutional challenges of blockchain technologies that provide regulatory options for governments and lawmakers.
Blockchain and Public Law will be a critical point of reference for scholars and students of legal theory, public policy and governmental law. It will also be beneficial to legal practitioners and lawmakers to further develop their knowledge of the field of blockchain at national and international levels.
Trade Review‘The broader variety of perspectives in the book make an important contribution to current scholarly debates. Hopefully this research will also be noticed by policymakers presented with opportunities (or pressures) to adopt blockchain technologies.’ -- Albert Sanchez-Graells, How to Crack a Nut: A blog on EU economic law
‘This book is a comprehensive yet extensive study on how blockchain changes our relationship with existing public institutions.‘ -- Thibault Schrepel, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
‘This book cuts through the blockchain hype by compiling the research of prominent scholars that critically engage with the technology and its legal implications. It is a rich collection of lucid evaluations of blockchain and the law and an invaluable resource for anyone interested in this particular technology but also the intersection between law and technological innovation more generally.‘ -- Michèle Finck, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Germany
Table of ContentsContents: 1 Introduction to Blockchain and Public Law 1 Oreste Pollicino and Giovanni De Gregorio PART I BLOCKCHAIN AND PUBLIC LAW 2 Blockchain utopia and its governance shortfalls 13 Uta Kohl 3 Blockchain and sovereignty 40 Riccardo de Caria 4 Blockchain and citizenship: uneasy bedfellows 59 Oskar J. Gstrein and Dimitry V. Kochenov 5 Blockchain and democracy: Challenges and opportunities of blockchain and smart contracts for democracy in the distributed, algorithmic state 76 Jurgen Goossens 6 Blockchain and authoritarianism: The evolution of decentralized autonomous organizations 89 Tom W. Bell 7 Blockchain and public administration 104 Yoan Hermstrüwer 8 Blockchain and freedom of expression 122 Giovanni De Gregorio 9 Blockchain, privacy, and data protection 140 Paul De Hert and Ashwinee Kumar 10 Blockchain for healthcare applications and use cases 156 Immaculate Motsi-Omoijiade and Alexander Kharlamov PART II BLOCKCHAIN AND PUBLIC LAW AT THE INTERSECTION 11 Blockchain and contract law: Smart contracts 191 Pietro Sirena and Francesco P. Patti 12 Blockchain and financial law: FinTech and crypto-assets 208 Filippo Annunziata 13 Blockchain and antitrust law: A roadmap 224 Maria Teresa Maggiolino and Laura Zoboli Index
