Smart Contract Enforcement and Legal Liability in Decentralized Cross-National Digital Transactions
Keywords:
Smart Contracts, Blockchain Law, Cross-Border Digital Transactions, Legal Liability, Jurisdiction, Decentralized Systems, Digital Evidence, Contract Enforcement, Blockchain Governance, Cyber Law.Abstract
The fast spread of blockchain technology has altered the context of digital commerce by allowing decentralized, automated, and
cross-border transactions with the use of smart contracts. These self-executing contracts do not have conventional middlemen,
which comes with greater efficiency, transparency, and security in transactions. Nevertheless, the cross-national and decentralized
character of smart contract ecosystems raises major legal issues, as they relate to enforceability, jurisdiction, the distribution of
liabilities, and dispute resolution. Current legal systems have been largely oriented towards traditional contractual arrangements
and do not work well when it comes to transactions conducted over distributed blockchain networks among pseudonymous entities
and across multiple jurisdictions. This paper looks into the principles of smart contract enforcement as well as explores the issues
of ascertaining legal responsibility in digitally transactional cases across national boundaries, which are decentralized. Regulatory
practices in key jurisdictions, such as the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and China, are
compared to reveal the presence of regulatory gaps and inconsistencies that impact on cross-border enforceability. The study also
weighs the jurisdictional issues, the issues of evidence on blockchain records, and the liability issues of the contracting parties,
developers, network members, oracle providers, or decentralized autonomous organizations. On the basis of the established
issues, a detailed legal framework is suggested, which will assist in determining jurisdiction, distributing liability, validating
digital evidence, complying with regulations, and resolving disputes across the border. The suggested framework will help to
increase legal predictability, accountability, and harmonized governance of the decentralized digital transactions. The results will
help in the further elaboration of international legal principles that can underpin the increased integration of blockchain-based
contractual frameworks in international online business.
