RICARDIAN CONTRACTS

• “Smart contract” (Szabo; pre-dates blockchain) ambiguous re: legal vs extra-legal/a-legal/para-legal nature.

• “Riccy” combines (i) human-readable legal agreement with (ii) machinereadable format that can be processed by computers.

• Terms expressed in natural language and encoded in structured format (eg, HTML or XML) that can be processed and validated by computers.

• See Ian’s chapter on “Why the Ricardian Contract Came About: A Retrospective Dialogue with Lawyers”

2.THE CONTRACT STACK

• Think “smart clause” not “smart contract”.

• Eg, a “transactional script” might form part of a contract.

• Others speak of “paper wrappers” (like “wrapped BTC”, “wrapped DAOs” etc)

• “Contract stack” is better.

• Various elements to a contract; a “smart clause” is just another one.

• Dynamics of interaction between ”layers” in “stack” are important.

• Think about how ambient law, parol representations, etc feature in “contract stack” (ie, “real vs paper deal”; rectification.)