Resolving NFT and Smart Contract Disputes

Professor Amy J. Schmitz, John Deaver Drinko-Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law and Co-Director of the Translational Data Analytics Institute Responsible Data Science CoP at the Moritz College of Law, has published “Resolving NFT and Smart Contract Disputes,” in The Cambridge Handbook on the Law and Policy of NFTs (Cambridge 2023); Ohio State Legal Studies Research Paper No. 717.  In her scholarly article, Professor Schmitz discusses the potential benefits and challenges related to the use of online dispute resolution in resolving smart NFTs and contract disputes.

Here is the abstract:

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) built in the blockchain are quietly revolutionizing ideas around digital assets despite their questionable status under current law. Furthermore, the smart contracts that control many NFTs are disrupting the way deals are done. At the same time, disputes regarding NFTs and smart contracts are inevitable, and parties will need means for dealing with these highly technical issues. This chapter tackles this challenge and proposes that parties turn to online dispute resolution (“ODR”) to efficiently and fairly resolve NFT and smart contract disputes. Furthermore, the chapter acknowledges the benefits and challenges of current means for addressing blockchain issues and proposes ideas for how designers could address those challenges and incorporate ODR to provide efficient and fair resolutions.

This and other publications written by Professor Schmitz may be downloaded free of charge from the Social Science Research Network.

Photo by: Andrey Metelev on Unsplash