Smart legal contract and its research progress

WANG Di; ZHU Yan; CHEN E; GUO Qian; LI Ji-ning; SUN Yi-zi; YI Ran

doi:10.13374/j.issn2095-9389.2021.02.22.001

Volume 44 Issue 1

Jan. 2022

Turn off MathJax

Article Contents

Article Navigation > Chinese Journal of Engineering > 2022 > 44(1): 68-81

WANG Di, ZHU Yan, CHEN E, GUO Qian, LI Ji-ning, SUN Yi-zi, YI Ran. Smart legal contract and its research progress[J]. Chinese Journal of Engineering, 2022, 44(1): 68-81. doi: 10.13374/j.issn2095-9389.2021.02.22.001

Citation:

WANG Di, ZHU Yan, CHEN E, GUO Qian, LI Ji-ning, SUN Yi-zi, YI Ran. Smart legal contract and its research progress[J]. Chinese Journal of Engineering, 2022, 44(1): 68-81. doi: 10.13374/j.issn2095-9389.2021.02.22.001

Citation:

PDF( 1002 KB)

Smart legal contract and its research progress

doi: 10.13374/j.issn2095-9389.2021.02.22.001

WANG Di¹,
ZHU Yan^{1
,
,},
CHEN E¹,
GUO Qian¹,
LI Ji-ning²,
SUN Yi-zi²,
YI Ran³

1.
School of Computer & Communication Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
2.
The Chinese Institute of Electronics, Beijing 100036, China
3.
Beijing Internet Court, Beijing 100160, China

More Information

Corresponding author: E-mail: zhuyan@ustb.edu.cn
Received Date: 2021-01-22
Available Online: 2021-04-07
Publish Date: 2022-01-01

Abstract

Abstract

With the advancement of blockchain, smart contracts have become increasingly popular. However, the uncertain status by law severely limits their practical applications. To address the problem, smart legal contract (SLC) is proposed as a transitional technology between legal and smart contracts. Starting with the basic concept of SLCs, in this paper, we discussed the legalization of smart legal contracts based on the requirements of existing legislation items and highlight that legalization should meet three elementary principles, including the specified grammatical requirements (for regulating terminology and eliminating ambiguity), the principle of nonempowerment (for resolving the inherent contradiction between automatic execution and the rights of parties), and examination criteria (for handling legal validity and code security issues). Moreover, we analyzed SLC’s legal effect by taking typical smart legal contract languages, SPESC and CML as examples, and show that the contract program or chaincode has the same legal effect as the original contract, if and only if they satisfy three necessary conditions: (1) adopting the technical specification for generation and conclusion of SLCs; (2) complying with three abovementioned elementary principles; and (3) agreeing on declaration with the same legal effect. Furthermore, investigating the smart contract architecture and deployment, the legal status of both contract program and compiled chaincode was demonstrated in legal analysis of the deployed smart contract. Last, we discussed and evaluated the current situation of smart legal contract logic models and language models on SLCs. This work shows that the research on smart legal contracts is a suitable approach to guarantee the legal status of smart contracts, and the results will contribute to grasping the future research directions in several fields, such as contract logic, arbitration process, and formal verification, from the existing legislation viewpoint.
- smart legal contract,
- domain specific language,
- data massage,
- principle of legalization,
- blockchain

FullText(HTML)

References(47)

References

[1]	Nakamoto S, Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system [J/OL]. Bitcoin Online (2008-10-31) [2021-09-17] https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
[2]	Szabo N. Smart contracts. [J/OL] Internet Documentation Online (2018-05-30)[2021-09-29].https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/rob/Courses/InformationInSpeech/CDROM/Literature/LOTwinterschool2006/szabo.best.vwh.net/smart.contracts.html
[3]	Szabo N. Smart contracts: building blocks for digital markets. EXTROPY: J Transhumanist Thought, 1996(16): 18
[4]	Zhu Y, Song W, Wang D, et al. TA-SPESC: Toward asset-driven smart contract language supporting ownership transaction and rule-based generation on blockchain. IEEE Transactions on Reliability, 2021, 70(3): 1255 doi: 10.1109/TR.2021.3054617
[5]	Bertoli P. Smart (legal) Contracts: Forum and Applicable Law Issues. Berlin: Springer International Publishing, 2020
[6]	Bartoletti M, Pompianu L. An empirical analysis of smart contracts: Platforms, applications, and design patterns. Financial Cryptogr Data Secur, 2017: 494
[7]	Savelyev A. Contract law 2.0:‘Smart’ contracts as the beginning of the end of classic contract law. Inf Commun Technol Law, 2017, 26(2): 116
[8]	Fries M. Smart Contracts. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019
[9]	朱巖, 王巧石, 秦博涵, 等. 區塊鏈技術及其研究進展. 工程科學學報, 2019, 41(11):1361 Zhu Y, Wang Q S, Qin B H, et al. Survey of blockchain technology and its advances. Chin J Eng, 2019, 41(11): 1361
[10]	Singh A, Parizi R M, Zhang Q, et al. Blockchain smart contracts formalization: Approaches and challenges to address vulnerabilities. Comput Secur, 2020, 88: 101654 doi: 10.1016/j.cose.2019.101654
[11]	Wang S, Ouyang L W, Yuan Y, et al. Blockchain-enabled smart contracts: Architecture, applications, and future trends. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern:Syst, 2019, 49(11): 2266 doi: 10.1109/TSMC.2019.2895123
[12]	中國電子學會. T/CIE 159—2020區塊鏈智能合約形式化表達. 北京: 中國標準出版社2021 Chinese Institute of Electronics. T/CIE 159—2020 Formal Expression of Blockchain Smart Contract. Beijing: Standards Press of China, 2021
[13]	Pereira J C. The genesis of the revolution in contract law: Smart legal contracts//Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance. Melbourne, 2019: 374
[14]	Governatori G, Idelberger F, Milosevic Z, et al. On legal contracts, imperative and declarative smart contracts, and blockchain systems. Artif Intell Law, 2018, 26(4): 377 doi: 10.1007/s10506-018-9223-3
[15]	Gelati J, Rotolo A, Sartor G, et al. Normative autonomy and normative co-ordination: Declarative power, representation, and mandate. Artif Intell Law, 2004, 12(1-2): 53 doi: 10.1007/s10506-004-1922-2
[16]	何小東, 易積政, 陳愛斌. 區塊鏈技術的應用進展與發展趨勢. 世界科技研究與發展, 2018, 40(6):615 He X D, Yi J Z, Chen A B. Application progress and development trend of block chain technology. World Sci Tech R D, 2018, 40(6): 615
[17]	Androulaki E, Barger A, Bortnikov V, et al. Hyperledger fabric: A distributed operating system for permissioned blockchains // Proceedings of the Thirteenth EuroSys Conference. Porto Portugal, 2018: 1
[18]	郎芳. 區塊鏈技術下智能合約之于合同的新詮釋. 重慶大學學報(社會科學版)http://kns.cnki.net/kcms/detail/50.1023.C.20200402.1345.004.html Lang F. New interpretation of smart contracts based on blockchain technology from the contractual perspective. J Chongqing Univ Soc Sci Ed, http://kns.cnki.net/kcms/detail50./1023.C.20200402.1345.004.html
[19]	吳燁. 論智能合約的私法構造. 法學家, 2020(2):1 Wu Y. The civil legal status of smart contracts. Jurist, 2020(2): 1
[20]	陳吉棟. 智能合約的法律構造. 東方法學, 2019(3):18 doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1007-1466.2019.03.002 Chen J D. The legal structure of smart contract. Orient Law, 2019(3): 18 doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1007-1466.2019.03.002
[21]	賀海武, 延安, 陳澤華. 基于區塊鏈的智能合約技術與應用綜述. 計算機研究與發展, 2018, 55(11):2452 doi: 10.7544/issn1000-1239.2018.20170658 He H W, Yan A, Chen Z H. Survey of smart contract technology and application based on blockchain. J Comput Res Dev, 2018, 55(11): 2452 doi: 10.7544/issn1000-1239.2018.20170658
[22]	孟博, 劉琴, 王德軍, 等. 法律合約與智能合約一致性綜述. 計算機應用研究, https://doi.org/10.19734/j.issn.1001-3695.2019.12.0652 Meng B, Liu Q, Wang D J, et al. Review on conformance between legal contract and smart contract. Application Research of Computers, https://doi.org/10.19734/j.issn.1001-3695.2019.12.0652
[23]	司曉, 曹建峰. 論人工智能的民事責任: 以自動駕駛汽車和智能機器人為切入點. 法律科學(西北政法大學學報), 2017, 35(5):166 Si X, Cao J F. On the civil liability of artificial intelligence. Sci Law (J Northwest Univ Political Sci Law), 2017, 35(5): 166
[24]	He X, Qin B H, Zhu Y, et al. SPESC: A specification language for smart contracts // 2018 IEEE 42nd Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC). Tokyo, 2018: 132
[25]	朱巖, 秦博涵, 陳娥, 等. 一種高級智能合約轉化方法及競買合約設計與實現. 計算機學報, 2021, 44(3):652 doi: 10.11897/SP.J.1016.2021.00652 Zhu Y, Qin B H, Chen E, et al. An advanced smart contract conversion and its design and implementation for auction contract. Chin J Comput, 2021, 44(3): 652 doi: 10.11897/SP.J.1016.2021.00652
[26]	Ethereum. Solidity Documentation-Release 0.8. 8 [J/OL]. Internet Documentation Online (2021-9-15) [2021-09-16].https://buildmedia.readthedocs.org/media/pdf/solidity/develop/solidity.pdf
[27]	W?hrer M, Zdun U. Domain specific language for smart contract development // 2020 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC). Toronto, 2020: 1
[28]	Christidis K, Devetsikiotis M. Blockchains and smart contracts for the Internet of Things. IEEE Access, 2016, 4: 2292 doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2016.2566339
[29]	朱巖, 甘國華, 鄧迪, 等. 區塊鏈關鍵技術中的安全性研究. 信息安全研究, 2016, 2(12):1090 Zhu Y, Gan G H, Deng D, et al. Security architecture and key technologies of blockchain. J Inf Secur Res, 2016, 2(12): 1090
[30]	Sklaroff J M. Smart contracts and the cost of inflexibility. Univ Pe Law Rev, 2017, 166(1): 263
[31]	歐陽麗煒, 王帥, 袁勇, 等. 智能合約: 架構及進展. 自動化學報, 2019, 45(3):445 Ouyang L W, Wang S, Yuan Y, et al. Smart contracts: Architecture and research progresses. Acta Autom Sin, 2019, 45(3): 445
[32]	方軼, 叢林虎, 楊珍波. 基于區塊鏈的數字化智能合約研究. 計算機系統應用, 2019, 28(9):225 Fang Y, Cong L H, Yang Z B. Study on digital smart contract based on blockchian. Comput Syst Appl, 2019, 28(9): 225
[33]	Beaumont P H. Fixed-income Synthetic Assets: Packaging, Pricing, and Trading Strategies for Financial Professionals. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 1992
[34]	Von Wright G H. Deontic logic. Mind, 1951, LX(237): 1 doi: 10.1093/mind/LX.237.1
[35]	Lee R M. A logic model for electronic contracting. Decis Support Syst, 1988, 4(1): 27 doi: 10.1016/0167-9236(88)90096-6
[36]	Grosof B N, Labrou Y, Chan H Y. A declarative approach to business rules in contracts: courteous logic programs in XML // Proceedings of the 1st ACM conference on Electronic commerce. Colorado, 1999: 68
[37]	Governatori G. Representing business contracts in RuleML. Int J Coop Info Syst, 2005, 14(2-3): 181
[38]	Governatori G, Milosevic Z. A formal analysis of a business contract language. Int J Coop Info Syst, 2006, 15(4): 659 doi: 10.1142/S0218843006001529
[39]	Governatori G, Pham D H. Dr-contract: An architecture for e-contracts in defeasible logic. Int J Bus Process Integr Manag, 2009, 4(3): 187 doi: 10.1504/IJBPIM.2009.030985
[40]	Idelberger F, Governatori G, Riveret R, et al. Evaluation of logic-based smart contracts for blockchain systems // International Symposium on Rules and Rule Markup Languages for the Semantic Web. Galway, 2016: 167
[41]	Frantz C K, Nowostawski M. From institutions to code: Towards automated generation of smart contracts // 2016 IEEE 1st International Workshops on Foundations and Applications of Self* Systems (FASW*). Augsburg, 2016: 210
[42]	Mavridou A, Laszka A. Designing secure ethereum smart contracts: A finite state machine based approach // Proceedings of International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security. Berlin, 2018: 523
[43]	王璞巍, 楊航天, 孟佶, 等. 面向合同的智能合約的形式化定義及參考實現. 軟件學報, 2019, 30(9):2608 Wang P W, Yang H T, Meng J, et al. Formal definition for classical smart contracts and reference implementation. J Softw, 2019, 30(9): 2608
[44]	O'Connor R. Simplicity: A new language for blockchains // Proceedings of the 2017 Workshop on Programming Languages and Analysis for Security. Dallas, 2017: 107
[45]	Biryukov A, Khovratovich D, Tikhomirov S. Findel: secure derivative contracts for ethereum. Financial Cryptogr Data Secur, 2017: 453
[46]	Regnath E, Steinhorst S. SmaCoNat: smart contracts in natural language // 2018 Forum on Specification & Design Languages (FDL). Garching, 2018: 5
[47]	Choudhury O, Rudolph N, Sylla I, et al. Auto-generation of smart contracts from domain-specific ontologies and semantic rules // 2018 IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things (iThings) and IEEE Green Computing and Communications (GreenCom) and IEEE Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom) and IEEE Smart Data (SmartData). Halifax, 2018: 963