Nick Szabo  🔑

If a court has jurisdiction over the parties—at least in the US—a court will exercise authority and analyze the “deal.” /1

What if the parties are individuals or small businesses in Guatemala dealing with same in Canada? Or in Albania with same in Zimbabwe?

It becomes a jurisdiction question and a question of whether a party can enforce a judgement.

For example, if there is a mistake in the agreement, the Canadian party could attempt to hail the Guatemalan party into Canadian court.

If the Canadian court has jurisdiction, it could render a judgment (including a default judgment), which Canadian party could try to enforce

For individuals/small parties, rules defined in a smart contract—& ability to automate performance obligations—help parties transact.

that doesn’t mean courts won’t attempt to exercise jurisdiction & construe a smart contract and/or remedy a harm if they have jurisdiction

Our blog post points out that coders will have to be trained as lawyers and vice versa, before this can happen.