Abstract

The Role of the Seat in Smart Contract Disputes

Diana Itzel Santana Galindo

English

A major development that international commercial arbitration has experienced over the past few decades, which will spread widely and at a rapid pace in the years to come, relates to technology and the necessity of international commercial arbitration to adapt to the new needs of the market. The path of technological development in trade is determined by forces other than the needs of legal practitioners. The lack of real connection to a unique place, in disputes where the multi-parties have not selected the seat, can have serious obstacles for the arbitral proceedings in blockchain technology disputes. Smart contracts, however, appear to have identifiable parties with an identified physical point of connection that can ultimately be adapted to the existing place of the arbitration theory within the international arbitration legal framework.