جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "smart contract" در نشریات گروه "فقه و حقوق"

Smart contracts are a new generation of electronic contracts based on blockchain technology. These contracts have differentiating features such as being self-executing, decentralized, encrypted and immutable, and these features have led the general public to regulate their legal relationships in the form of these contracts. But the question that was raised from the beginning of these contracts is whether the technology of smart contracts is just a program code that represents the agreements of the parties or is it considered a contract in its legal sense and the rules, regulations and effects of contracts are also applied in them? In this article, by examining the text of relevant laws and regulations and studying library sources, we have explained this issue with a comparative view between the laws and doctrine of Iran and Bulgaria, and we have analyzed the similarities and differences about the nature of the smart contract as program code or legal contract, and we have come to the conclusion that despite the fact that smart contracts are formed in the form of program code, they have the characteristics and features of legal contracts and the rules, regulations and effects of legal contracts apply to them, except for the cases that are excluded by the laws.

Despite the different definitions of smart contracts that have been expressed, there is still disagreement regarding their definition and legal nature. Therefore, it is necessary to define the actual legal meaning and nature of a smart contract. Moreover, due to the self-executing feature of these contracts, the study of dispute resolution in these contracts is necessary. In the current research, after reviewing the definitions of smart contracts and how to ensure the self-execution features of them in the blockchain platform, the possible ways to resolve disputes in these types of agreements have been discussed. In conclusion, based on the specific feathers of these agreements, Arbitration has been suggested as the best suitable dispute resolution, and JUR and Kleros have been mentioned as examples of electronic arbitration with a mechanism specific to the blockchain platform to resolve disputes arising from smart contracts. Moreover, examples of electronic arbitration with a compatible mechanism to the blockchain platforms that can be accessible at the international level were examined, and online, decentralized, and fair dispute resolution methods in blockchain systems were proposed.

The concept of Islamic banking is grounded in principles that emphasize rights, justice, and public welfare, aiming to manifest human ethics in financial transactions. Unlike conventional banking, Islamic banking prohibits unethical practices such as usury (Riba), risk/uncertainty (Gharar), and trading in forbidden goods. This ethical framework mandates that profits and losses in economic activities must be shared among capital, labor, and management, fostering a fairer financial ecosystem. However, the practical implementation of these principles often encounters challenges due to governance issues, lack of transparency, and bureaucratic inefficiencies.
     Blockchain technology, with its decentralized, transparent, and secure nature, presents an opportunity to address these challenges. By facilitating peer-to-peer transactions without the need for intermediaries, blockchain can potentially enhance the efficiency and ethical compliance of Islamic banking. This article examines the role of blockchain in realizing the ideals of Islamic banking, with a particular focus on its compatibility with the constitutional framework of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The primary research question of this study is: "what is the capability of blockchain in realizing true Islamic banking?" This question addresses the potential of blockchain technology to align with and enhance the principles of Islamic banking, particularly within the legal and ethical confines of the Iranian constitutional framework. The study seeks to explore whether blockchain can offer a viable solution to the challenges faced by Islamic banking, such as governance issues, lack of transparency, and adherence to Sharia principles.

The research hypothesis posits that blockchain technology is not only compatible with the foundational principles of Islamic banking but also significantly aids in achieving its goals. The hypothesis is based on the premise that blockchain’s inherent characteristics—decentralization, transparency, and security—can enhance the ethical and operational aspects of Islamic banking. Specifically, the hypothesis suggests that blockchain can:     Facilitate Sharia-compliant transactions by ensuring transparency and accountability.
     Reduce operational costs and risks by eliminating intermediaries.
     Enhance trust and credibility in Islamic financial institutions.
     Address governance issues through a decentralized and democratic framework.

This study employs a multifaceted methodological approach, incorporating doctrinal, legal, economic, and comparative analyses to investigate the role of blockchain in Islamic banking. The research methodology is structured as follows:     Doctrinal Analysis: This involves a detailed examination of Islamic legal principles related to banking and finance, focusing on the ethical and jurisprudential underpinnings of Islamic banking.
     Legal Analysis: This component analyzes the legal framework governing Islamic banking in Iran, including constitutional provisions and regulatory guidelines. The study assesses how blockchain technology can be integrated into this framework to support Sharia-compliant financial practices.
     Economic Analysis: The economic implications of adopting blockchain in Islamic banking are examined, particularly in terms of cost efficiency, risk management, and financial inclusion. The analysis considers the potential impact on various stakeholders, including banks, customers, and regulators.
     Comparative Analysis: This involves a comparative study of three governance models in banking: traditional bureaucracy, private blockchain, and public blockchain. The comparative framework evaluates the effectiveness of each model in terms of transparency, efficiency, and adherence to ethical standards.
     Framework Application: The application of the research methodology is guided by the following steps:     Comparative Evaluation: The three governance models—traditional bureaucracy, private blockchain, and public blockchain—are evaluated against a set of ethical and operational criteria. This evaluation identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each model in supporting the goals of Islamic banking.
     Policy Recommendations: Based on the findings, the study offers policy recommendations for regulators and financial institutions on how to leverage blockchain technology to enhance the ethical and operational aspects of Islamic banking.
     By adopting this comprehensive methodological framework, the study aims to provide a detailed and nuanced understanding of the role of blockchain in Islamic banking, with a particular focus on the context of Iran.

The investigation into the role of blockchain technology in realizing Islamic banking within the framework of the Islamic Republic of Iran has yielded several key findings. First and foremost, blockchain’s alignment with Sharia and ethical principles is evident in its foundational characteristics. The transparency, immutability, and decentralized nature of blockchain ensure that transactions can be conducted in a manner that upholds justice and fairness, fundamental tenets of Islamic finance.
     Compatibility with Sharia Principles: The results indicate that blockchain technology does not inherently contradict Sharia financial principles. Smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms directly written into code, can be designed to comply with Sharia rules. For instance, the prohibition of usury [Riba] can be enforced by coding interest-free transaction terms. Similarly, the avoidance of risk [Gharar] can be ensured through transparent and pre-defined contract conditions.
     Challenges and Solutions: One significant challenge identified is the anonymity feature inherent in public blockchain networks. While anonymity can protect user privacy, it also poses risks related to organized crime and tax evasion. Advanced solutions from other countries, such as Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols, can be implemented to mitigate these risks. KYC processes are essential to verify user identities and ensure that blockchain applications in Islamic banking remain secure and ethical.
     Advantages Over Conventional Banking: Blockchain technology offers several advantages over traditional banking practices, particularly in addressing the goals outlined in the Iranian Constitution. These advantages include:     Rights and Justice: Blockchain ensures transparent and tamper-proof records of transactions, promoting fairness and reducing opportunities for corruption. This aligns with the constitutional values of justice and equity.
     Cooperation and Qard al-Hasan: Blockchain facilitates the expansion of cooperative financial practices, such as interest- free loans [Qard al-Hasan]. Smart contracts can automate the management and distribution of these loans, ensuring compliance with Sharia principles and enhancing trust among participants.
     Preventing Corruption and Collusion: The immutable nature of blockchain records makes it difficult to alter transaction histories, thereby preventing corruption and collusion. This characteristic is vital for maintaining a healthy and stable economy, crucial for addressing economic crises like inflation and injustice.
     Framework for Implementation: To harness these benefits, it is crucial to establish a regulatory framework that combines the decentralized advantages of blockchain with necessary institutional oversight. This framework should incorporate identity verification mechanisms, compliance with Sharia law, and guidelines for ethical conduct in financial transactions.

The research concludes that blockchain technology is compatible with the ethical and Sharia principles underlying Islamic banking. The implementation of blockchain can address many of the current shortcomings in conventional banking systems, such as corruption, lack of transparency, and inefficiency, which have hindered the full realization of Islamic banking principles.
     Blockchain’s decentralized and transparent nature aligns well with the goals of Islamic finance, ensuring justice, fairness, and ethical conduct. However, to fully integrate blockchain into Islamic banking, it is essential to address the challenge of anonymity through robust KYC protocols and institutional regulations. This will prevent misuse and ensure that blockchain-based Islamic banking systems are secure and compliant with both ethical standards and Sharia law.
     Moreover, blockchain can play a significant role in transforming traditional banking roles, potentially rendering them obsolete in the coming decades. The technology’s ability to provide direct peer-to-peer financial services without intermediaries can reduce costs, increase efficiency, and enhance trust in the financial system.
     In conclusion, while blockchain presents numerous benefits for Islamic banking, its successful implementation requires a balanced approach that leverages its technological advantages while ensuring compliance with ethical and legal standards.

Smart contracts, as a new generation of electronic contracts, have been welcomed by many people to conclude contracts in cyberspace due to unique features, including transparency, self-execution, decentralization, and accuracy. Nevertheless, this technology will pose unknown legal challenges similar to what happened to the DAO smart contract in 2016. In this study, the causes of civil liability in case of occurrence of errors during the implementation of smart contracts were identified and studied. Utilizing library and internet resources with descriptive and analytical methods, with the underlying assumption that the terms of the contract were known to the parties, and mutual agreement on the contract's provisions was reached at. It was further posited that any errors that occur were not a result of a mistake by the will of the contracting parties. The results indicated that at least four cases can incur civil for the errors caused by implementing the smart contract, including (1) the blockchain on which the smart contract was implemented, but caused errors in the smart contract due to a security gap or programming problems, (2) artificial intelligence that is responsible for analyzing and executing smart contract codes and has not analyzed or executed the code correctly, (3) oracles connected to the smart contract that provide insecure or wrong information to the smart contract, and (4) the smart contract developer who did not write the security codes of the contract correctly or inadvertently put the wrong code in the smart contract, due to lack of skill or negligence.

With the development of technology, the need to reform the legal system for the ultimate benefits are felt more than ever. A facet of technological advances in question is blockchain-based smart contracts, which have been widely welcomed with features such as self-execution, transparency, speed, and elimination of intermediaries. One of the special conditions of smart contracts is digital signature, which facilitates validation and measuring the accuracy of data assignment. In the United States, following the popularization of the use of smart contracts, their validation was carried out through electronic signatures, and in this regard, the Uniform Law of Electronic Transactions (1999) and the Commercial Law of Electronic Signatures at the National and Global Levels (2001) were used. These are indeed the regulations that can validate smart contracts with extended definitions of registrations and electronic signatures. However, there is still a need to enact new regulations on digital signatures and this has been one of the ongoing issues in legislation of blockchain technology. The current research has investigated the legal capacities in Iranian law for crediting smart contracts with a comparative approach and the study of similar cases in the United States law. In this regard, it was stated that in cases where the law deems written registration necessary, an electronic registration including the transaction recorded in the blockchain can also fulfill the condition of being in writing. Also, considering the necessity of validating smart contracts as well as accepting digital signatures in the legislative system, two proposed legal articles were presented in Iran's legal system.

As one of the relatively new topics of the technology world, the smart contract has different angles and dimensions in the field of conclusion and execution, which must be analyzed from a legal perspective. This contract is implemented on the platform of software such as Ethereum and has features that blockchain technology benefits from. The smart contract is concluded and executed without the parties' capacities being verified, and this is considered one of its most important legal challenges in the conclusion stage. In the forward research, it is tried to introduce the mentioned feature in detail, and after providing solutions to solve this legal defect and verifying the eligibility of the parties, the criticisms of it will be expressed and it will be explained that the anonymity of the parties as one of the certain features of the smart contract should be recognized. Then this matter is subject to jurisprudential and legal scrutiny, whether it is possible to invoke the principle of correctness despite the lack of competence of the parties in the smart contract, or whether this transaction should be considered invalid.

Smart contracts are a new generation of digital contracts that are written in the form of encrypted computer codes. These contracts are based on blockchain technology and therefore have self-executing features and can monitor the performance of contract terms and implement the provisions of the contract without the intervention of human agents, and these activities are irreversible in the context of blockchain. This article, with a comparative study of the laws and regulations of Australia and Iran, investigates the methods of protecting the parties to the contract against unfair contract terms. The level of protection of the rights of the parties to the contract against unfair contractual terms in the two legal systems shows that the Australian regulations in this field are sufficient, even with the new challenges caused by the inclusion of unfair contractual terms in smart contracts and provides the necessary support, but Iran's laws and regulations in this field are at a preliminary level and need more completion and research.

After the correct conclusion of a smart contract, the discussion of how to dissolve it in electronic channels is discussed. The exercise of options in smart contracts must be done in accordance with the rule of harmlessness in order to prevent harm and damage to others. Smart contracts, by exercising options, are able to perform various operations based on certain limited conditions, and it gives the parties of the transaction access to different methods for executing the contract and changing its conditions. In general, exercising options in smart contracts allows the parties of the transaction to It allows to determine the terms of the transaction in a more precise and specific way and creates a significant improvement in the performance and efficiency of smart contracts, and also the lack of options reduces the stability and loss of flexibility in the smart contract. The main purpose of exercising options in smart contracts is to improve the contract implementation process and help the parties to comply with their rights and obligations more effectively. In this article, using the library and research method, to analyze the exercise of options and the resulting challenges. We will pay for it in smart contracts. Exercising options in smart contracts should be investigated and clarified from different aspects due to the huge impact this action has on the execution of contracts and business relationships.

In order to determine the timing of smart contract formation, which is considered a type of electronic contract, the authors initially examine the viewpoint of traditional contract law. In England and the United States, the doctrine of receipt of acceptance is accepted for instantaneous transactions, while the doctrine of dispatch of acceptance is applied to non-instantaneous contracts to determine the timing of contract formation. In Iran, a unified approach has not been adopted by legal scholars, and the authors advocate for the acceptance of the doctrine of declaration of acceptance. However, regarding the timing of electronic contract formation, the legal systems of England and the United States consider the time of sending the data message as the moment of contract formation, while the Iranian legal system, we claim, relies on the time of signing the acceptance letter as the criterion for contract formation. Various assumptions can be conceived regarding the timing of smart contract formation, and the authors argue that legal systems adhering to the theory of receipt of acceptance should rely on "receipt of the message containing acceptance of the smart contract," while legal systems favoring the theory of dispatch of acceptance should consider the "time of signing the contract with a private key by the acceptor" as the criterion for determining the timing of smart contract formation.

A smart contract is one type of electronic contract whose specific feature is automatic execution. General validity conditions of contracts should be met to determine the validity of a smart contract. General validity conditions of a contract from Iran and the United States of America perspective consist of parties’ capacity, mutual agreement, valid subject-matter, and legitimacy of contract purpose. As described in this article, parties’ capacity normally does not examine in the routine procedure of smart contract conclusion, and it’s obligatory to ensure the complete capacity of parties by additional measures. Mutual agreements easily can be determined in smart contracts. Smart contracts can be concluded as reciprocal or nonreciprocal; and this article clarifies if there was no consideration in a nonreciprocal smart contract, it should be deemed as void in USA territory. Finally, if the purpose of a smart contract conclusion was illegal, undoubtedly that contract will be invalid in both Iran and USA territory.

Letters of credit are one of the most successful solutions for large and international business players in the field of increasing security and reducing transaction risk, where the buyer opens a letter of credit with a reputable financial institution such as a bank, thus assuring the seller. That is the amount promised and delivered. This process, which was based on paper and involved a lot of risks, still requires a lot of time and money, despite the many advantages of electronic systems. Therefore, any attempt to reduce time or cost increases credential efficiency. The purpose of this article is to explain the possibility of transferring letters of credit procedures from previous methods to the blockchain platform and creating smart contracts as model proposals, using the descriptive analysis procedure to coordinate and evaluate the steps in both procedures. Deals in this area and its compatibility with block chain technology and smart contracts. The results of this study show that implementing a Letter of credit on the block chain platform as a system that is highly secure and uses smart contracts (self-execution) increases transaction security and the likelihood of retaining provided documents, resulting in human resources involvement and the process from beginning to end credit makes documents shorter, faster and low cost. Usance LC on the block chain platform is also based on smart assets, eliminating the need to comply with Swift and FATF rules, including issues such as the lack of direct lines between banks in different countries.

With the introduction of cryptocurrency into the world of economy, smart contracts were formed based on it and are now partially popular. Experts in this field believe that in case of widespread use of this type of contracts, the possibility of formal transactions will disappear. Despite conducting numerous researches on smart transactions, the discussion of virtual transactions has not been investigated in this field, and this research, using an analytical-descriptive method, is for the first time trying to investigate the responsibility of the Islamic government in this regard. It seems that due to the negative effects of formal transactions in the society, if a special mechanism can eliminate these transactions, the Islamic government is responsible for making them mandatory. According to jurisprudential interpretations, providing social and economic security is the government's duty, which is an example of the mandatory smart contract with the aim of eliminating formal transactions. From a legal point of view, the executive and judicial authorities can send a bill to the Islamic Council regarding the mandatory use of smart contracts in order to provide legal protection and also to prevent the occurrence of crimes. Monopoly in the smart type of contracts is contrary to Islamic Sharia and its partial acceptance is possible like electronic transactions. If the related law is not approved, the executive bodies in charge of certain affairs can use their authority to make these contracts mandatory. The final result is that with the relatively mandatory smart contract and the popularization of cryptocurrency, it is possible to eliminate formal transactions and this action is considered to improve economic security.

The development of blockchain technology has had a significant impact on human life in recent years, and some even believe that the fourth industrial revolution has begun. Smart contracts are concluded under the supervision of artificial intelligence on the blockchain platform, the exchange of a contract in them is virtual assets or digital cryptocurrencies. By taking advantage of their unique features such as security, stability and self-execution, these contracts have created new capacities for humans in the field of transactions.

It is descriptive study.

Ethical Considerations: 

All ethical considerations have been observed.

The progress of technology has created a period of transition from traditional concepts and the entry of modern and new concepts in the field of law, while the speed and complexity of technology has brought challenges in the legal system of contracts; among these challenges is accountability and compliance of the basics. Available with new concepts in the field of contract law, this research examines the legal role of blockchain in smart contracts in the field of intellectual property and by scrutinizing the characteristics of this contract, it determines the possibility of using them in the contractual field and in order to support and protect intellectual property.

Among the beneficial effects of this technology on intellectual property are increasing speed, reducing registration costs, maintaining intellectual property records, tracking and managing intellectual property. But this technology, like any other emerging technology, in order to be implemented in the legal system, first requires changes in the infrastructure and the development of laws and regulations.

Blockchain transforms many aspects of governance. By employing this technology transparency, fraud detection, contract enforcement will be secured and the role of intermediary agents will diminish. If this is a real effect of above-mentioned technology, which roles can be assigned to law and legal science which has been evolved to perform similar role in organizing society. It seems to me that legal science will transform fundamentally. It is not that societies do not need laws any more, but some branches of legal science such as property right law, contract law, commercial law and so forth will change profoundly and computer based codes will replace them. Then, code governance must be taken seriously because it has deep effects of legal science. In comparison, other branches of legal science will evolve to accommodate to new technologies and new emergent conflicts of interest.