Technology & the law: when worlds collide

• If the English law is to continue to innovate, and to match the pace of technological progress it must be freed from the legal fiction which has shackled it to a form of property that is becoming decreasingly relevant.

In 2019 Sir Geoffrey Vos, referring to cryptoassets, spoke of ‘the ability of the common law in general, and English law in particular, to respond consistently and flexibly to new commercial mechanisms’ (Legal statement on cryptoassets and smart contracts, UK Jurisdiction Taskforce, November 2019).

The English High Court is certainly rising to the challenge. For instance, at the time of writing, the High Court has held in interlocutory proceedings that:

• cryptocurrency is a form of property (although the form of that property remains an open question) (eg AA v Persons Unknown [2019] EWHC 3556 (Comm));
• the lex situs of cryptocurrency is the place where the person or company