Contractele inteligente şi normele legale imperative. Quo vadis?

Rezumat

Following the economic crisis at the beginning of the 21st century, trust in intermediaries has declined significantly, especially in the financial sector. Against the backdrop of this decline, some initiatives have emerged to remove the “trusted third party” from the contract framework. One such initiative is Blockchain technology and the smart contracts that are concluded through it. Because smart contracts do not require an intermediary or judicial body to review their validity and enforce them, they are seen by some as an alternative, not just to the usual way of concluding a contract, but to private law in general. In this paper we aim to explain how smart contracts operate, to analyze their legal nature and to address some of the issues that may arise regarding the compatibility of this type of contract with legal rules aimed at protecting the weaker party in a contract.