Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies are considered as transformative for corporate governance and enabling decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that challenge hierarchical structures. However, legal, governance, and liability issues surround DAOs. Despite the aim for decentralization, practical implementation often reveals centralized elements. The chapter also explores blockchain’s impact on traditional corporations, emphasizing improvements in share issuance, trading, and decision-making. Blockchain can also address custody chain problems, enhancing transparency in securities and stock ownership. Yet, transitioning to blockchain, exemplified by ASX CHESS Replacement, is complex. While blockchain holds promise in fostering shareholder and stakeholder rights, a nuanced assessment of limitations and practicalities is crucial. More classical alternatives like secure and transparent centralized systems should also be considered in corporate governance.

FinTech, as we lay out in this book, is best understood as including four major elements: first, global wholesale markets where digitisation means speed, crucial for capitalising on information advantages; second, an explosion of financial technology (FinTech) start-ups particularly since 2008 in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) seeking regulatory lenience that was available to the small but not the large; third, the unprecedented digital financial transformation in retail finance in some countries, particularly China, India, and Kenya; and fourth, the increasing role of large technology companies moving into financial services and digital financial platforms.This long-term process of digitisation and datafication of finance has increasingly combined with the technologies commonly termed ‘ABCD’: Artificial Intelligence (A), Big Data (B), Cloud Computing (C), and Distributed Ledger Technology (D). The latter typically uses blockchains and makes possible the smart contracts that underpin cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies. These technologies have together, on the one hand, prompted the need for digital identification and, on the other hand, triggered the extraordinary growth we have seen: Regulatory Technologies (RegTech) and Supervisory Technologies (SupTech).We include all of these aspects of the revolution through which we are all living in the rubric, FinTech. Its ambit is broad and extends from innovations with disruptive effects on existing intermediaries, such as crowdfunding and crowdlending among many others, through to the entry into financial services of the BigTechs and the existential threats they pose to traditional banks.

This chapter considers how distributed ledger technologies and blockchain can contribute to the creation of new foundational infrastructure for financial services, including crypto-assets and smart contracts. We classify the new business models, analyse the opportunities, and highlight the regulatory challenges.

The technology underpinning crypto-assets – distributed ledger technology (DLT) – has been talked about as having the potential to advance financial inclusion. This article analyses this potential, by using the literature on the underlying reasons for financial exclusion and what has worked; then juxtaposing that against the advantages of DLT and how they could be relevant in addressing the underlying reasons. The article concludes with high-level reflections on the challenges in realising the potential of DLT and the risks.

This chapter explores the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and explains how the transition to a blockchain-based trading system could be operationalised. It also provides a legislative roadmap for aligning the EU ETS with the European Union Digital Strategy.

This chapter considers the practical and legislative challenges of and requirements for achieving an effective crypto-legal structure for DLT in the carbon trading economy. It also explores the roles of different stakeholders in this transitioning process to achieve an efficient carbon economy.

This chapter introduces the book and sets the scene in relation to which concepts are to be explored.

Customs surveillance of intellectual property is an efficient way to quickly and effectively provide legal protection to the right-holder, as it allows to nip the infringements in the bud. Technology has drastically changed the means and mechanisms of customs enforcement, as it increases the possibilities of identifying and detaining goods infringing IPRs, and makes it more feasible to assess in advance where control is required.

However, assessing in advance and acting when appropriate does not always match well with fundamental intellectual property principles (territoriality), global trade norms (freedom of transit), global intellectual property rules, and due process requirements.

This chapter explores some of the challenges and opportunities brought by AI, big data and distributed ledger technologies to customs enforcement of IPRs. It looks at AI’s transformative influence on IP enforcement and the digitization and use of big data in customs control.

The author examines the impact of blockchain and smart contracts on the legal profession. After all, the lawyer is entitled to draft smart contracts. For a few years now, in information technology, the lawyer has promoted the writing of so-called agile contracts in connection with projects run by “agileȁ methods. However, the smart contract, whether described as a contract or simple algorithm, challenges the lawyer by its philosophy (“code is law”) and by its writers who are no longer jurists but developers. He discusses whether this technology will be “killing off” the legal profession. Before over-hastily assuming this apocalyptic demise of the lawyer, the author suggests to think about the role and the status of the lawyer in his general mission of advice and defense, and considers whether information technology can be a substitute for the lawyer or simply a new tool that could be used.