Digital Assets in Scots Private Law

16 Pages Posted: 1 Sep 2021

See all articles by David Fox

David Fox

School of Law, University of Edinburgh

Date Written: August 30, 2021

Abstract

This paper sets out some of the main areas of legal uncertainty in accommodating digital assets within Scots private law. It suggests some analyses for fitting them within existing legal principles and areas where reform might be needed to allow that fit or give certainty to the commercial actors who use them. The paper builds on work done by the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce (“UKJT”) in their “Legal statement on cryptoassets and smart contracts” (2019) and by the Law Commission of England and Wales in their ongoing project on electronic trade documents and digital assets.

It proposes that digital assets are best analysed as species of corporeal thing in Scots property law.

Keywords: Digital assets, Cryptoassets, Property Law, Scotland, UKJT

JEL Classification: K11, K22

Suggested Citation

Fox, David, Digital Assets in Scots Private Law (August 30, 2021). Edinburgh School of Law Research Paper No. 2021/17, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3914228 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3914228

David Fox (Contact Author)

School of Law, University of Edinburgh ( email )

Old College
South Bridge
Edinburgh, EH8 9YL
United Kingdom

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
202
Abstract Views
1,295
Rank
231,204
PlumX Metrics