International School of Advanced Studies

The curriculum investigates three main directions:

• Theoretical aspects: Blockchain implies a new form of social organization and decision-making method that changes the relationship between institutions, authorities, and citizens. This raises relevant questions regarding the legitimacy of activities carried out on the Blockchain and the validity of smart contracts, especially in certain sectors (e.g., legislation, justice, administration). The autonomy of the decision-maker is crucial for preserving normativity, and the self-execution of smart contracts emphasizes certain theoretical aspects and pillars of our democracy. The control of humans in every phase is an important research topic.
• Regulation: Stable regulation needs to be defined in its legal foundations (e.g., legal theory) and specific areas (e.g., civil law, labor law, etc.) to support the emerging market and the introduction of Blockchain, smart contracts, ICOs, and NFTs into society. An international legal perspective is necessary (e.g., UNCITRAL, UNIDROIT, HCCH) to avoid fragmentation. The European Blockchain Service Infrastructure provides an opportunity to regulate certain principles at the supranational European level, including digital identity.
• Application aspects: The program aims to research how to apply the constellation of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology to the legal domain (e.g., Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Corruption, etc.) and other domains with the goal of ensuring compliance with the legal framework. Some solutions involve legal reasoning and arguments to verify compliance before self-execution. Various principles are crucial, such as law-by-designed, transparency, accountability, human rights, privacy, responsibility, and human-centered design.

All these themes require specific innovative interdisciplinary research.