Control and Ownership of Digital Assets

Linda Jeng

ISBN 10: 316200134X / ISBN 13: 9783162001344

Published by Mohr Siebeck Gmbh & Co. K Dez 2025, 2025

About this Item

Neuware -This volume brings together leading scholars and practitioners to examine how diverse legal systems - both common law and civil law, national and international - approach the questions of control and ownership of digital assets. The comparative inquiry reveals not only doctrinal differences, but also shared concerns over legal certainty, market efficiency, and the adaptation of traditional legal categories to new technologies. The chapters traverse a wide range of jurisdictions. Contributions from Germany, France, Switzerland, and Australia illustrate how civil law systems grapple with the limitations of traditional doctrines of tangibility. The United States chapter analyzes the introduction of Article 12 to the Uniform Commercial Code, with its creation of 'controllable electronic records'. The United Kingdom and Brazil chapters demonstrate how common law and hybrid systems have sought to adapt flexible doctrines to novel technical architectures. The Hong Kong and Singapore chapters show how Asian common law jurisdictions combine pragmatic judicial reasoning with increasingly granular regulatory oversight. The Mexico chapter highlights how pioneering statutory definitions-such as those in the 2018 Fintech Act-proved both innovative and unduly narrow, creating gaps in the classification of assets under private law. The Taiwan chapter examines the courts' characterization of virtual assets as 'movable things,' while suggesting a shift toward a ledger-based model of public notice. Finally, the chapter on UNIDROIT's Digital Assets and Private Law Principles (DAPL) situates these national approaches within an emerging body of international soft law, where the concept of 'control' serves as a functional analogue to possession. Taken together, these contributions illustrate convergence in recognizing that digital assets must be capable of being treated as objects of property rights, while also exposing divergence in the doctrinal and institutional means by which that recognition is achieved.

Seller Inventory # 9783162001344

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Control and Ownership of Digital Assets
• Publisher: Mohr Siebeck Gmbh & Co. K Dez 2025
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 316200134X
• ISBN 13: 9783162001344
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 232W x 154H x 15D millimeters 232 millimeters width by 154 millimeters height by 15 millimeters depth
• Weight: 420 grams

About this title

Synopsis

English summary: This volume brings together leading scholars and practitioners to examine how diverse legal systems - both common law and civil law, national and international - approach the questions of control and ownership of digital assets. The comparative inquiry reveals not only doctrinal differences, but also shared concerns over legal certainty, market efficiency, and the adaptation of traditional legal categories to new technologies. The chapters traverse a wide range of jurisdictions. Contributions from Germany, France, Switzerland, and Australia illustrate how civil law systems grapple with the limitations of traditional doctrines of tangibility. The United States chapter analyzes the introduction of Article 12 to the Uniform Commercial Code, with its creation of "controllable electronic records". The United Kingdom and Brazil chapters demonstrate how common law and hybrid systems have sought to adapt flexible doctrines to novel technical architectures. The Hong Kong and Singapore chapters show how Asian common law jurisdictions combine pragmatic judicial reasoning with increasingly granular regulatory oversight. The Mexico chapter highlights how pioneering statutory definitions-such as those in the 2018 Fintech Act-proved both innovative and unduly narrow, creating gaps in the classification of assets under private law. The Taiwan chapter examines the courts' characterization of virtual assets as "movable things," while suggesting a shift toward a ledger-based model of public notice. Finally, the chapter on UNIDROIT's Digital Assets and Private Law Principles (DAPL) situates these national approaches within an emerging body of international soft law, where the concept of "control" serves as a functional analogue to possession. Taken together, these contributions illustrate convergence in recognizing that digital assets must be capable of being treated as objects of property rights, while also exposing divergence in the doctrinal and institutional means by which that recognition is achieved. German description: Die Beitragerinnen und Beitrager aus Wissenschaft und Praxis untersuchen, wie unterschiedliche Rechtssysteme die Fragen nach der Kontrolle und des Eigentums an digitalen Vermogenswerten angehen. Der rechtsvergleichende Ansatz offenbart nicht nur dogmatische Unterschiede, sondern auch gemeinsame Anliegen: die Gewahrleistung rechtlicher Sicherheit, die Effizienz der Markte und die Anpassung traditioneller Rechtskategorien an neue Technologien. Die einzelnen Beitrage decken eine Vielzahl von Rechtsordnungen ab. Die Beitrage aus Deutschland, Frankreich, der Schweiz und Australien zeigen, wie Zivilrechtssysteme mit den Grenzen klassischer Lehren zur Korperlichkeit von Sachen umgehen. Das Kapitel zu den Vereinigten Staaten analysiert die Einfuhrung von Artikel 12 in den Uniform Commercial Code, der den Begriff der "controllable electronic records" (kontrollierbaren elektronischen Aufzeichnungen) eingefuhrt hat. Die Kapitel zum Vereinigten Konigreich und zu Brasilien verdeutlichen, wie Common-Law- und hybride Systeme flexible Rechtsgrundsatze auf neuartige technische Strukturen anwenden. Die Beitrage zu Hongkong und Singapur zeigen, wie asiatische Common-Law-Rechtsordnungen pragmatische richterliche Argumentation mit zunehmend detaillierter regulatorischer Aufsicht verbinden. Das Kapitel zu Mexiko hebt hervor, wie wegweisende gesetzliche Definitionen - etwa im Fintech-Gesetz von 2018 - zwar innovativ, aber zugleich zu eng gefasst waren und dadurch Lucken in der privatrechtlichen Einordnung von Vermogenswerten hinterliessen. Das Kapitel zu Taiwan untersucht die gerichtliche Einordnung virtueller Vermogenswerte als "bewegliche Sachen" und pladiert zugleich fur eine Weiterentwicklung hin zu einem registerbasierten System offentlicher Bekanntmachung. Abschliessend ordnet das Kapitel zu den UNIDROIT Principles on Digital Assets and Private Law (DAPL) diese nationalen Ansatze in den Kontext eines entstehenden internationalen Soft Law ein, in dem das Konzept der "Kontrolle" als funktionales Pendant zum Besitz verstanden wird. Insgesamt zeigen die Beitrage eine Annaherung darin, dass digitale Vermogenswerte grundsatzlich als Gegenstand von Eigentumsrechten behandelt werden mussen, zugleich aber auch eine Vielfalt in den dogmatischen und institutionellen Wegen, auf denen diese Anerkennung erreicht wird.