Private Law Theory

INTRODUCTION
The Law Commission has recently published its final report on Digital Assets. It is a wide-ranging look at the private law and characterisation of such assets. One fundamental question that must be asked about digital or cryptoassets is how we conceptualise ownership of them. The Law Commission make a number of recommendations and proposals, concerning the nature of property in digital assets and whether it can be seen as a tertium quid, traditionally seen as impossible because all assets are either choses in possession or choses in action. It is also concerned with control as an indicium of legal title, transfers and collateral arrangements, and remedies for interference with such assets. This article concentrates on those recommendations and conclusions that bear on the nature of digital assets as private property. These questions are important; case law is reasonably clear that digital assets are potentially objects of property, but doubts and questions remain …

€ (Westlaw)

Duncan Sheehan, ‘Digital assets, blockchains and relativity of title’ [2024] Journal of Business Law (1) 78-100.