Tutor: Prof.ssa Valeria Caredda

Short bio:

In 2022, he obtained a Master’s degree in Law, with a thesis entitled ‘Consent to the processing of personal data’ (Supervisor: Prof.ssa Valeria Caredda). He is currently a PhD student in Legal Sciences, recipient of a PNRR scholarship (DM 118/2023), and his research project focuses on the impact of smart contracts and distributed ledger technologies on certain aspects of general contract law, particularly on the formation and execution of contracts itself. He has spoken on these topics at conferences and seminars and has published several scientific papers.

Thesis abstract:

The controversial figure of the smart contract seems to be able to significantly impact the legal system, especially when the selfsame “smart contracts” operate within Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT). One of the problems that smart contracts pose regards coordination with the general discipline of contracts and obligations contained in the civil code that raises delicate questions even of a dogmatic nature, perplexities that may hinder the nonchalant use of institutes and categories of central private relevance. The initial part of this work is subdivided into a cognitive-descriptive section of the phenomenon and another devoted to the examination of aspects of a theoretical-dogmatic nature. Its aim is to approach or point out the incompatibility between the qualities of the technologies under consideration and the procedures for the formation of the contract, the rules of its interpretation and the execution of the contract itself, paying particular attention to the problems arising from the mandatory effects it produces. The approach that is favoured as regards the extension of private autonomy in the aforementioned disciplines is bound to play a key role in the results of the work. The second phase, which is of a more practical-applicative nature, focuses on the main sectors in which it appears (or is hoped) that smart contracts may be more widely used, sub specie in financial contracting. The study of the latter, in accordance with the activities envisaged in the above mentioned research project, foresaw a six-month internship (which has already been completed) at SFIRS s.p.a. (Sardinia Region Finance Company). The second part of the thesis will verify the considerations developed in the first part of the thesis, that isthe implications of the premises accepted there. In addition to the examination of the problems interrelated to the imposition of supranational law, especially those of the European Union - which involve the regulation of smart contracts and TLDs, the doctoral thesis also contemplates a synchronic approach, whose profiles will be the subject of investigation mainly during the research period abroad at the Institut für Italienisches Recht (Universität Innsbruck).