Conflict of laws in blockchain and cryptoassets

I gave a paper on the above theme at a meeting of the Study Group of Private International Law of the Kansai Region (Japan) on 23 January 2021.

Conflict of laws is an abstract subject. So I structured my analysis along typical scenarios which are partially taken from real cases. They include the bankruptcy of an exchange provider, the misappropriation of crypto-assets, the mistaken transfer of crypto-assets, the use of crypto-assets to purchase goods or services, the hacking of a smart contract (or decentralized autonomous organization) and the use of crypto-tokens for securitization. I gave detailed considerations to proprietary issues in particular, as these are a theoretically challenging area.  I also gave comments on the works of others including the project of the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

The handout distributed to the audience (in Japanese) is attached here.