Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Abstract
Contracts are an every-day occurrence that we often do not consciously consider; but our accommodation and transportation – unless one walks –, as well as our food, clothes, and computers are all based on contracts of some kind. Information technology is likewise something that we often take for granted without thinking about the underlying basis. Technologies like blockchain allow smart contract programs to be used in a way that brushes the realm of law: contracts. I will explore this encounter by considering the legal validity of smart contracts and the technological feasibility of legal smart contracts.
Profile
Anna Katharina Suzuki-Klasen is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Department of Japanese Law at the FernUniversität in Hagen (Germany). Her research combines the fields of comparative law and contract law. She is particularly interested in comparing English, German, European Union (EU), and Japanese law. Her recent work focusses on new technologies like smart contracts and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and their impact on contract methods and the law. She received her PhD in comparative contract law from the University of Hamburg in 2020 while working as a Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, Germany. Prior to that she completed her undergraduate LL.B. degree at the University of East Anglia (UEA), in Norwich, UK, and also has the degree of Master of Law and Business (M.L.B.) from the Bucerius Law School/WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Hamburg/Vallendar, Germany.
Find out more about the TSVP on the program website: oist.jp/visiting-program
#OIST #OIST_TSVP #Theoretical #Science #VisitingProgram #Okinawa #TSVP #Technologies #Law
Abstract
Contracts are an every-day occurrence that we often do not consciously consider; but our accommodation and transportation – unless one walks –, as well as our food, clothes, and computers are all based on contracts of some kind. Information technology is likewise something that we often take for granted without thinking about the underlying basis. Technologies like blockchain allow smart contract programs to be used in a way that brushes the realm of law: contracts. I will explore this encounter by considering the legal validity of smart contracts and the technological feasibility of legal smart contracts.
Profile
Anna Katharina Suzuki-Klasen is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Department of Japanese Law at the FernUniversität in Hagen (Germany). Her research combines the fields of comparative law and contract law. She is particularly interested in comparing English, German, European Union (EU), and Japanese law. Her recent work focusses on new technologies like smart contracts and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and their impact on contract methods and the law. She received her PhD in comparative contract law from the University of Hamburg in 2020 while working as a Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, Germany. Prior to that she completed her undergraduate LL.B. degree at the University of East Anglia (UEA), in Norwich, UK, and also has the degree of Master of Law and Business (M.L.B.) from the Bucerius Law School/WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Hamburg/Vallendar, Germany.
Find out more about the TSVP on the program website: oist.jp/visiting-program
#OIST #OIST_TSVP #Theoretical #Science #VisitingProgram #Okinawa #TSVP #Technologies #Law
