Digital Assets in Scots Private Law: Innovating for the Future
This project is generously funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE)
'Digital Assets in Scots Private Law: Innovating for the Future' is a research project led by the University of Aberdeen with collaborators from the University of Edinburgh, University of Dundee (formerly from Edinburgh Napier University), and CMS. It is a one-year project running between 1 December 2023 and 30 November 2024 and generously funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) under its research workshops scheme.
Digital assets (eg Bitcoin), underpinned by distributed ledger or similar technology, have grown globally in significance and become increasingly important for individuals and businesses. The effects of digital assets are wide-ranging, impacting upon trade, finance, securities, insolvency, succession and even family matters. The novel and fast-evolving nature of digital assets brings a number of challenges in applying traditional legal concepts to these assets and accommodating them under existing legal rules and regimes. There are advanced reform projects in different jurisdictions for reviewing and adapting domestic laws to facilitate digital assets and provide innovate legal solutions to issues raised, but not yet in Scotland.
This project aims to assess to what extent digital assets are already accommodated within Scots private law, which areas of law require reform, and how law reforms concerning digital assets can be best advanced in Scotland. In doing so, the project focuses on two important classes of digital asset, namely electronic trade documents and cryptoassets, and engages with key stakeholders across Scotland.
As part of the project, three workshops will be organised to bring together focus groups with diverse experience and expertise from academia, legal practice, industry, the judiciary, policymaking and government to discuss key issues concerning digital assets in Scots private law, and a webinar will be held to disseminate final project findings.
These events will be followed by publication of project outputs.
Project Leads
The project is led by a research team from the University of Aberdeen in collaboration with distinguished lawyers from academia and practice across Scotland.
