Detailed Plan
There is an old tradition in many African societies of resolving disputes "under the Acacia tree." Unfortunately, this tradition was not widely reflected in modern systems of law. As a result, there has been an enormous backlog of cases in the legal systems in many African countries. In some places, the backlog is more than a decade long–making it practically impossible to settle disputes over transactions. Recently, a number of countries have addressed this problem by providing new guidelines for dispute resolution and arbitration. For example, Ethiopia recently adopted a new legal framework for the binding arbitration.
The hope is that blockchain based tools can help resolve the problem. It is commonly said that "code is law" when it comes to smart contracts. This is misleading. Most contracts, whether written in natural language or as self-executing code, can give rise to disputes that lead to costly lawsuits. This is true any place a dispute arises, whether that is in the U.S., the EU or in Africa.
Solution:
The best route to avoid the time, expense and uncertainty associated with lawsuits in African countries such as Ethiopia and Zambia is to take advantage of new legal frameworks for binding arbitration. In order to make this possible, appropriate dispute resolution and arbitration clauses need to be incorporated as integrated provisions in smart contracts for enterprise level and p2p transactions. We propose to (1) develop educational resources for the Cardano community in Africa about the arbitration process, (2) create a set of readily available legal templates for binding arbitration clauses that developers can incorporate into their dApps to support users making smart agreements, (3) develop a dApp/integration for processing smart arbitration clauses and (4) enlist the help of legal experts and developers in a broad range of countries in Africa.
Plan:
In the first four months of this project, the leaders aim to leverage the efforts of the Kepler SCS team to build legal templates and a dApp for dispute resolution and binding arbitration in the US, EU and UK. See the related Catalyst proposal in the dApp Challenge. Building on this experience, we plan to develop similar templates with a dApp for processing disputes specifically tailored for legal frameworks in African countries. In doing so, the Kepler team aims to cultivate a network of partners on the ground in Ethiopia, Zambia and other countries where Cardano has a growing presence. The Kepler SCS is providing the services of a Catalyst incubator for this project with the expectation that, in time, the individuals on the ground in African countries will move through an accelerator program and then gain greater autonomy in plotting their own path. The team has reached out to iceaddis with the hope of collaborating to build a local project leadership teams.
Team and Experience:
- Jeffrey Downard, professor of law, ethics and logic. PI of NEH and NSF funded projects to build educational resources, director of crowdsourcing for SPIN project.
- David Watts, Full Stack Developer
- Sarah Holcomb, JD, Contract Law, Arbitration, Trusts, Estates, Taxes, Fiduciary
- Tom Dietrich, JD, Business Law, Contract Law, IP
- Collaborators: Project directors plan to network and collaborate with lawyers and developers in Ethiopia and other African countries.
- Board of Advisors: <https://www.keplerscs.com/our-team-1>
IP:
Open workshop on Zoom in both a live and recorded form. The educational resources will be publicly available via a Youtube channel under copy left permission. The templates will be freely available for developers and dApp users in the Cardano community.
Defining success:
A series of online workshops with participants drawn from the legal and developer communities. A set of integrated video tutorials on the use of provisions for choice of law and jurisdiction and binding arbitration clauses in smart contracts in Africa. A set of templates for smart agreements written in English and a number of African natural languages and Plutus.
Timeline and Budget:
Phase 1:
- Months 1-3: Legal Research on choice of law and jurisdiction, dispute resolution and settlement procedures and binding arbitration clauses in smart contracts: ($3,000)
- Workshop budget: ($2000)
- Website development and and Youtube channel: ($2000)
- Months 1-4: Cultivate a network of partners in African countries where Cardano has a growing presence: ($5000)
- Months 2-4: Creation and editing of an integrated set of video tutorials on the proper use of provisions for choice of law and jurisdiction and binding arbitration clauses in smart contracts. ($2,500)
- Months 2-4: Develop templates for smart agreements in African countries written in both natural language and a design for a dApp to process the clauses in Plutus and Marlowe: ($6,000)
- Months 2-4: Translation of the natural language provisions from English to other languages used in Ethiopia, Zambia and other target countries: ($2000)
- Months 2-4: Develop a framework for a dApp/integration for processing binding arbitration clauses: ($6,000)
- Project direction: months 1-4 ($3,000)
- Project participation, oversight and evaluation by members of Board of Advisors months 1-4: ($3,500)
- Total: ($35,000)
Our team is committed to the effective use of Catalyst funds to achieve the goals of the project and support the growing Cardano community in Africa. Towards this end, we are committed to procedural safeguards in the form of oversight by a board of advisors with a wide range of areas of expertise in finance, accounting, startups and IP. The board will provide oversight and auditing functions as a guarantee. We intend to draw on experience as a test of what we have found is effective for the sake of future Catalyst projects.
Links:
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn7mp5BXNH3pWkHtM85Z3rA>
Resources:
<https://globalarbitrationreview.com/review/the-middle-eastern-and-african-arbitration-review/2018/article/developments-in-african-arbitration>
<https://www.abyssinialaw.com/blog-posts/item/1494-arbitration-in-ethiopia-law-and-practice>
<https://www.whitecase.com/publications/alert/ethiopia-modernizes-arbitration-framework>
<https://mehrteableul.com/index.php/insights/news-and-updates/item/37-legal-update-highlights-of-key-chanages-and-introductions-made-by-the-new-arbitration-and-conciliation-proclamation>
Yann Aouidef, Federico Ast, and Bruno Deffains. "Decentralized Justice: A Comparative Analysis of Blockchain Online Dispute Resolution Projects." Frontiers in Blockchain 4 (2021): 3.
Michael Buchwald, "Smart contract dispute resolution: the inescapable flaws of blockchain-based arbitration." U. Pa. L. Rev. 168 (2019): 1369.
REV. ONLINE 35, 39 (2014), http:// scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr-online/vol71/iss2/3/
Joshua A.T. Fairfield, Smart Contracts, Bitcoin Bots, and Consumer Protection, 71 WASH. & LEE L.
Reggie O'Shields, Smart Contracts: Legal Agreements for the Blockchain, 21 N.C.BANKING INST. 177, 183 (2017)
Peter Michaelson and Sandra A. Jeskie. "Blockchain and Smart Agreement Disputes Call for Arbitration's Strengths." Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation 39, no. 6 (2021): 91-94
James Rogers, Harriet Jones-Fenleigh & Adam Sanitt, Arbitrating Smart Contract Disputes, INT'L ARB. REP., Oct. 2017, at 21, 22 ("Many technologists believe that Smart Contracts replace contract law and courts and tribunals with code.")
Daniel Garrie and Judge Gail Andler, Decentralized Finance Made Simple: What Lawyers Need to Know, Tech News, 6/17/2021, <https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2021/06/17/decentralized-finance-made-simple-what-lawyers-need-to-know/?slreturn=20210718214856>
