Currently
Blockchain developments are legally in no man's land. The use of
Blockchain-based applications is not limited to a single country; however, the
incipient legislation is being carried out individually in different countries,
replicating the traditional vision of law. However, and as Juan Andres Aviles
pointed out during the meeting, “when creating a chain of blocks you don't have
to be bound to a specific territory, so the legislation should be global.
Smart
Contracts legislation and asset tokenization must be one of the objectives to
generalize the use of the Blockchain. ” For Simon Olsen, the financial sector
must also adapt its regulations to the use of this technology. “Regulators must
embrace the Blockchain because it is a technology that has a lot to contribute
to global economic growth, although currently the banking sector is not very
open to its use."
The other big
brake for the Blockchain is education. All the experts present agreed that
currently the great barrier to introduce this technology in the law lies in the
lack of knowledge about Blockchain technology, its operation and its
possibilities. Manuel González-Meneses said that "there is a problem of
translation of the technological language, and on the other hand there is also
how we can 'algorithmize' a contract".
Almudena de la Mata said that
“lawyers must understand technology and be able to work together with computer
scientists. In our training we check the transformative effect for the jurist
of understanding the technical language”. According to Aviles, “We must reach
the tandem between knowledge of technology and legal knowledge, or bet on mixed
work teams that include these two types of knowledge.”
The redefinition of the role of
lawyer: the consequences of Blockchain
Technology,
and in particular the Blockchain, throws questions about the profession and the
role of the lawyer in the future, but it does so especially in limited legal
fields. It has a special impact on registration systems and the role that
lawyers must have in intermediation and conflict resolution processes. In this
sense, Juan Andres Aviles said that “the law related to mediation processes,
resources between individuals, arbitration… All aspects of the law related to
conflict resolution, through the use of Smart Contracts in Blockchain, can be
resolved in a very simple way. It has to accompany the current legislation, but
I think it will be one of the great niches of application of this technology. ”
This also
translates into a new conception of the role that the lawyer should have in
these aspects of law. Moisés Menéndez commented that “the lawyer will have to
learn to work as a developer, and this will mean a revolution in the
profession. The lawyers are going to have to work in open source, know code,
etc.”
For his part, for Almudena de la Mata, the future of law will go through
“service through teams” and added that “The role of the lawyer currently in the
Blockchain environment is key and focuses on thinking about constitutional or
systemic effects of its use, accompanying the development of applications and infrastructure
in Blockchain environments with the regulatory framework we have; considering
that it is not designed for a decentralized reality and that it is very
difficult to apply.”
Entering the
debate on the new professions that the Blockchain Juan Andrés Aviles may bring,
he said that “the future will test the ability of professionals in the legal
sector to adapt, as it has done with many other professions, which will
undoubtedly have to change their form of thinking ” and pointed out that “ in
relation to the application of Smart Contracts, a reviewer / auditor figure
will appear from the legal and technical point of view, verifying that this
contract complies with the agreed terms ”.
Regarding the
future of the Blockchain, all experts mentioned the tokenization of assets as
one of the great challenges “in copyright, works of art, real estate, platform
economy, etc. Joining the platform economy with tokenization will be the
disruptor, although obviously the legislation must accompany it” said Juan Andrés
Aviles; while Almudena de la Mata confirmed that “the tokenization of physical
assets is more complex than that of digital assets. We must focus on narrower
terrain where the application of Blockchain is simpler and poses fewer
problems. ”, the big brakes for its widespread implementation
