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Closing the tech gap

18 March 2025
Issue: 8109 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Technology
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Sir Geoffrey Vos, the Master of the Rolls has assigned the job of resolving legal uncertainties around digital assets and artificial intelligence (AI) liability to an expert group of judges, lawyers and regulators

Delivering the keynote speech to the 2025 UK Lawtech Conference last week, Sir Geoffrey, who chairs the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce (UKJT), said the taskforce will be starting work ‘immediately’ on its next three projects.

First, it will produce non-binding guidance on the concept of ‘control’ regarding digital assets. Second, it will provide a statement on redress for harms caused by AI—the taskforce has already issued three statements on the status of cryptoassets and smart contracts and the use of blockchain systems.

Sir Geoffrey said the fourth statement will be produced ‘with an eye to whether or not statutory intervention or underpinning is required.

‘The focus will be on harms caused to third parties and whether the existing law of torts can adequately respond’. He said the UKJT thinks there is ‘genuine market uncertainty’ about how and when developers of AI tools and those that use them might incur legal liability when things go wrong. Given the ‘multiple calls in the UK’ for more AI regulation and ‘for legislation to create new liabilities for its use. It would obviously be useful for government to have a reliable legal backdrop against which to consider those calls’.

The third project is to form an International Jurisdiction Taskforce (IJT), bringing together ‘legal thinkers in the digital space from the main private law jurisdictions around the world’. Sir Geoffrey said the idea ‘is to start the process of seeing whether some level of private law alignment can be achieved between the laws applicable in the most commonly chosen commercial jurisdictions. New York law, English law, Singapore law, Dubai law and French and German law might be a suitable starting point’.

Issue: 8109 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Technology
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
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