Article
Author: Danielle D'Onfro (Associate Professor of Law, Washington University in St. Louis)
This Essay explores the barriers to deploying smart contracts in the consumer finance space: the humans themselves, existing consumer protection laws, and the other businesses which have financial contracts with consumers but that cannot deploy smart contracts. These three barriers render perfectly automated enforcement all but impossible. Nevertheless, there may be room for modifiable smart contracts in the consumer finance space – although these contracts may be only marginally more efficient than traditional contracts.
Keywords: consumer finance, smart contracts, automated enforcement, consumer protection
How to Cite: D'Onfro, D. (2020) “Smart Contracts and the Illusion of Automated Enforcement”, Washington University Journal of Law and Policy. 61(1).