Epubs ahead of print

• Sir Geoffrey Vos End-to-End Smart Legal Contracts : Moving from Aspiration to Reality [more info] [read] for Special Edition on Smart-Contracts (vol 26(1)).
  
  
• Bryanna Workman NIPT: Not Inherently Patentable? An Analysis of the Patent-Eligibility of Prenatal Diagnostic Patents [more info] [read]
  
  
• Manfred Ewikowski & Lynden Griggs Oil, Food, Corruption and Blockchains – A Retrospective Examination of Iraq’s Oil for Food Programme [more info] [read]
  
  
• Elliott Cook Blue Skies Still Ahead A Retrospective and Prospective Look at Technology in the Legal Professions [more info] [read]
  
  
• Sara M Smyth New Drone Regulations in the United States Keep Calm but Don’t Carry on [more info] [read]
  

Privacy special Epubs

• Roger Clarke and Graham Greenleaf Dataveillance Regulation A Research Framework [more info] [read]
  
  
• Chih-hsing Ho Challenges of the EU General Data Protection Regulation for Biobanking and Scientific Research [more info] [read]
  
  
• Stuart Hargreaves and Lokman Tsui IP Addresses as Personal Data Under Hong Kong’s Privacy Law: An Introduction to the Access My Info HK Project [more info] [read]
  
  
• Paul Roth ‘Adequate level of data protection’ in third countries post-Schrems and under the General Data Protection Regulation [more info] [read]
  
  
• Alan Toy Generating Standards for Privacy Audits Theoretical Bases from Two Disciplines [more info] [read]
  
  
• Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG Privacy Today: Something Old Something New Something Borrowed Something Blue [more info] [read]
  

Neurolaw special Epubs

• Elizabeth Shaw Moral Worth, Biomedical Moral Enhancement and Communicative Punishment [more info] [read]
  
  
• Hannah Maslen Policymaking for Human Enhancement Technologies: Scientific Description, Philosophical Prescription, and the Constraints of Law [more info] [read]
  
  
• Ana Nordberg Defining Human Enhancement Towards a Foundational Conceptual Tool for Enhancement Law [more info] [read]
  
  
• Bebhinn Donnelly-Lazarov What it Means to be Responsible for Action Mind and Movement in Criminal Law [more info] [read]
  
  

• Privacy in the Social Networked World
• Unmanned vehicles, Legal, social and ethical issues of unmanned technology
The Role of Law in DNA Patenting: Reflections on the appropriateness of DNA patenting, what is the evidence?

Special Edition on “Smart Legal Contracts: Moving from Aspiration to Reality”

The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, the Editorial Board of the Journal of Law, Information & Science (JLIS), and Special Editor Dr Jason Grant Allen invite submissions to a Special Edition of the JLIS for publication in April 2020. Sir Geoffrey Vos, Chancellor of the High Court of England and Wales, has contributed the Lead Article [read] .

Theme

This Special Edition explores what it would take for “smart legal contracts”—transactional algorithms that express enforceable legal relations—to move from concept into practice. This involves considerations of how “end to end” solutions might operate, what elements (“smart” and conventional) they might include, and what legal issues they might raise. Submissions are invited from specialists in law, humanities, social sciences and STEM disciplines. Academic, technical, inter-disciplinary and cross-jurisdictional perspectives are welcome. Doctrinally-focussed studies should consider the common law jurisdictions of the Commonwealth.

Topics

A technical background is provided in the Annexes to this Consultation Paper. A number of open questions are set out in the Lead Article, and some assumptions framing this Call derive from J.G. Allen, “Wrapped and Stacked: ‘Smart Contracts’ and the Interaction of Natural and Formal Language” (2018) 14(4) European Review of Contract Law 307. Authors should seek to engage critically with these under the following broad topic areas:

• The concept of smart contracts (e.g. neither “smart” nor “contracts”, relation to other transactional algorithms, relation to cryptoassets, the notion of a “contract stack”);
• Use cases for smart contracts (e.g. present and future applications, looking beyond financial transactions, use in organisation and governance);
• The legal basis of “smart legal contracts” (e.g. choice of law, incorporation of terms, anonymity/pseudonymity);
• Interactions between smart contracts and conventional law (e.g. the “Zamfir/Szabo debate”, smart contracts and conflicts of laws, jurisdiction over DAOs);
• Design principles, elements, and emerging best practices (e.g. dispute resolution layers, security standards, coding languages)

Form of Submissions

Authors may submit:

• Long Articles (8,000-10,000 words),
• Short Articles (4,000-6,000 words) (both peer-reviewed); and
• Notes (1,500-3,500 words including case, practice, and technical notes).

Abstracts are to be submitted in Microsoft Word or RTF format by email attachment to the Special Editor: submissions@jlisjournal.org. The style-guide for JLIS is found here.

Key dates

• 1 November 2019: Abstracts of 500 words or less including proposal and author details and submission type.
• 1 February 2020: Final manuscript submission for expedited peer review.
• 1 April 2020: Online publication.
  

Dr Jason Grant Allen, on behalf of
the Journal of Law, Information & Science Editorial Board and The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG.