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Cryptoassets & insolvency

11 October 2024 / Iain Young
Issue: 8089 / Categories: Features , Profession , Crypto , Insolvency
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Iain Young discusses the emerging legal landscape of digital assets in England & Scotland
  • Digital assets are increasingly recognised as property in England and Scotland, but their intangible nature complicates legal issues like ownership and enforcement.
  • England intends to integrate digital assets into its legal framework, while Scotland faces unique challenges, requiring potential legislative reforms.
  • The complexity of digital assets underscores the need for legal reforms to address ownership, security interests, and insolvency implications.

As stated in the recent Law Commission report on digital assets published on 29 July 2024, digital assets are fundamental to modern society and the contemporary economy. They are used in growing volumes and for an expanding variety of purposes —as valuable things in themselves, as a means of payment, or to represent or be linked to other things or rights. Electronic signatures, cryptography, distributed ledgers, smart contracts and associated technology have increased the ways in which digital assets can be created, accessed, used and transferred. Such technological development is set only to continue. As technology advances and humans spend increasing

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NEWS
Writing in NLJ this week, NLJ columnist Dominic Regan surveys a landscape marked by leapfrog appeals, costs skirmishes and notable retirements. With an appeal in Mazur due to be heard next month, Regan notes that uncertainties remain over who will intervene, and hopes for the involvement of the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls in deciding the all-important outcome
After the Southport murders and the misinformation that followed, contempt of court law has come under intense scrutiny. In this week's NLJ, Lawrence McNamara and Lauren Schaefer of the Law Commission unpack proposals aimed at restoring clarity without sacrificing fair trial rights
The latest Home Office figures confirm that stop and search remains both controversial and diminished. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort University analyses data showing historically low use of s 1 PACE powers, with drugs searches dominating what remains
Boris Johnson’s 2019 attempt to shut down Parliament remains a constitutional cautionary tale. The move, framed as a routine exercise of the royal prerogative, was in truth an extraordinary effort to sideline Parliament at the height of the Brexit crisis. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC dissects how prorogation was wrongly assumed to be beyond judicial scrutiny, only for the Supreme Court to intervene unanimously
A construction defect claim in the Court of Appeal offers a sharp lesson in pleading discipline. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ, Stephen Gold explains how a catastrophically drafted schedule of loss derailed otherwise viable claims. Across the areas explored in this week's column, the message is consistent: clarity, economy and proper pleading matter more than ever
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