Clifford Chance
Legal considerations around smart contracts: Contracts between computer programs
16 September 2021
Difficult legal issues arise when computer software purports to enter into a contract. Electronic contracting is not a new concept. However, the rise of artificial intelligence and smart contracting means that these issues will become more important. They therefore deserve analysis.
In this note, we consider two questions around capacity to contract and reversibility of performance which arise where two computer programs contract directly with each other, in circumstances where there is no separate written natural language contract and where there is no overarching contractual framework governing the interaction. While this is not a common scenario at present, it is likely to be seen more frequently as the use of electronic contracting becomes more common. These issues arise whether or not DLT is a feature of the underlying platform or software.
