Sir Geoffrey Vos, the Master of the Rolls, wants English law to be at the forefront of developments relating to cryptoassets and smart contracts. In his thought-provoking foreword to the government-backed UK Jurisdictional Taskforce’s (UKJT) Legal Statement on Cryptoassets and Smart Contracts, he explained that English law should aim to provide “much needed market confidence, legal certainty and predictability in areas that are of great importance to the technological and legal communities and to the global financial services industry” as well as to “demonstrate the ability of the common law in general, and English law in particular, to respond consistently and flexibly to new commercial mechanisms.” He returned to the same theme in a speech on 24 February 2022 at the launch of the Smarter Contracts report by the UKJT in which he said “[m]y hope is that English law will prove to be the law of choice for borderless blockchain technology as its take up grows exponentially in the months and years to come”.

The law defines whether and how an owner can find and recover a stolen asset, whether a contract about an asset can be enforced and whether rights are owed between parties in relation to an asset.  English law has traditionally been very flexible in fashioning remedies to uphold contracts and to allow parties to preserve and follow (trace) assets – by interim protective relief in the form of injunctions, disclosure orders against third parties (Banker’s Trust orders), by recognising trusts over assets and by the English Courts accepting jurisdiction over claims in the first place.  If English law allows owners of cryptoassets to access these remedies, it should provide the “market confidence, legal certainty and predictability” described by Sir Geoffrey Vos.

In this article, we explore the extent to which recent developments in English law have furthered these objectives and address in turn:

  • Are cryptoassets property?
  • Can cryptoassets be held on trust?

Read the first part of the series on our Blockchain and the Law blog.

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Photo of Steven Baker Steven Baker

Steven is a commercial lawyer who has a broad practice in international and domestic dispute resolution. He helps clients in English higher court proceedings and overseas.

Steven also has a large international arbitration practice with experience of a wide range of arbitral institutions…

Steven is a commercial lawyer who has a broad practice in international and domestic dispute resolution. He helps clients in English higher court proceedings and overseas.

Steven also has a large international arbitration practice with experience of a wide range of arbitral institutions, including HKIAC, ICC, LCIA, LMAA, UNCITRAL and SIAC.

Steven is ranked in the leading legal directories for commercial dispute resolution and banking litigation. He has been described in the directories as “a tremendous litigator – he is very clever and efficient and handles multiple clients well”, “very thoughtful, very into the detail, but equally takes a very commercial stance” and “very good at running complex commercial disputes, very bright and a pleasure to deal with”.

Over the past 30 years, Steven has been heavily involved in advising upon and resolving disputes in the technology, communications, defence, financial services and energy sectors.

Steven is also the co-author of a leading text on technology and outsourcing disputes (a 2nd edition now having been commissioned and due to be published in July 2023): IT Contracts and Dispute Management: A Practitioner’s Guide to the Project Lifecycle, published in March 2018 (Edward Elgar Publishing, ISBN: 9781784710118).

Photo of Julia Bihary Julia Bihary

Julia is the Pro Bono Counsel for the Firm’s London and Paris offices and leads the Firm’s Pro Bono and corporate social responsibility projects in these offices.

She has a background in Litigation, where she specialised in complex commercial litigation and arbitration matters…

Julia is the Pro Bono Counsel for the Firm’s London and Paris offices and leads the Firm’s Pro Bono and corporate social responsibility projects in these offices.

She has a background in Litigation, where she specialised in complex commercial litigation and arbitration matters and is a solicitor advocate with Higher Rights of Audience.

Julia participated in Proskauer’s Women’s Sponsorship Program, an initiative that champions high-performing mid-level and senior lawyers as emerging leaders.

She is fluent in English, Hungarian and German.