The LawtechUK Panel is pleased to announce the launch of the International Jurisdiction Taskforce (IJT).
The IJT is a new international and independent body convened to address legal barriers to the adoption of digital assets, international digital finance, and digital trade.
Chaired by the Master of the Rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos, the IJT brings together legal experts from the most widely used private law systems around the world, including the United Kingdom, United States, France, Singapore, the European Union, Australia and Japan. The objective of the IJT will be to present proposals to reduce the international legal barriers to the use and development of novel digital asset technology, including blockchain and smart contracts.
The IJT builds on the success of the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce (UKJT), which since 2018 has published influential legal statements on the status of cryptoassets, smart contracts, digital securities, and the treatment of digital assets in the insolvency process, in English Law. As legal systems and financial markets increasingly confront the challenge of regulating decentralised technologies, international collaboration is essential.
The new taskforce will serve as a forum for comparative legal analysis, with a primary focus on the legal nature and attributes of digital assets. It will also consider related issues at a later stage, such as the legal nature and enforceability of smart contracts, and the applicability of insolvency and succession regimes to digital asset holdings, securitisation and smart contracts.
The IJT does not seek to impose regulatory models, but rather to promote compatibility amongst legal systems, enabling innovation while safeguarding legal certainty. Similarly, the IJT will avoid duplicating work already undertaken by larger legal international organisations such as the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law
(UNIDROIT), and the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), and instead it will adopt a pragmatic, commercially relevant approach that speaks directly to all participants in the digital assets space.
Regarding the establishment of the IJT, Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls, said:
“The legal infrastructure underpinning international trade must be as agile and borderless as the technologies for which it provides the foundation. The IJT offers a unique opportunity for private law systems to collaborate in shaping the future of digital commerce and supporting innovation on a global scale.”
The Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, also welcomed the initiative:
“The work of the IJT is essential to achieving greater international co-operation on the topic of digital money and digital assets more broadly. I very much look forward to seeing the impact of this work."
Further information about the IJT’s membership and first areas of inquiry will be published in due course.