[SMULA] Recent Highlights Series - Cryptoassets in Property Law: Current Debates (in Singapore and Beyond)

The property law treatment of cryptoassets such as Bitcoin and Ether is foundational to their treatment in many other areas of law (such as insolvency law or estate planning), and indirectly informs questions of their regulatory treatment (for example, whether they are more like financial products/instruments or more like “digital commodities”).

Around the common law world, courts are moving towards further clarity on the point that cryptoassets are fitting objects of property rights. However, questions remain, particularly relating to what type of property they are, and whether the existing law is adequate or needs to change. Recent cases in Singapore illustrate some of the decisions to be made as well as the broader significance of cryptoassets for private law theory. 

In this session, the speaker will examine the basic question in light of recent judicial decisions and also law reform projects in Singapore and around the Common Law world, including the landmark report of the Law Commission of England and Wales released earlier this year. It will also take a brief comparative view at the position in Civil Law countries in Asia. This session is based on current work under the auspices of the Asian Business Law Institute. 

This session is part of the SMU Law Academy “Recent Highlights” series. Designed with the busy practitioner in mind, this series provides participants with a convenient platform to obtain timely and practical bite-sized analysis of the latest developments in various areas of the law. The series will be taught by leading and experienced experts curated from academia and practice. Each topic in the series is distilled into a short-duration online webinar so that busy legal professionals can be effectively updated with the most material developments affecting their practice.

SPEAKER

Dr. Jason Grant ALLEN is an Associate Professor of Law at SMU Yong Pung How School of Law and Director of the SMU Centre for AI & Data Governance. He is a globallty recognised expert on the emerging law of digital assets. He is currently leading an ABLI project on “15 Issues for Cryptoassets”, was a working group member of the UNIDROIT digital assets project (which recently promulgated its principles for the private law treatment of digital assets), was co-editor of a recent Oxford University Press volume on Smart Legal Contracts, was translator the English version of Christian von Bar, Foundations of Property Law: Things as Objects of Property Rights, and has recently commenced work co-editing a Handbook of Digital Assets and the Law with the Oxford University Press. 

FEES