Who Is Going to Write "smart Contracts"—the Lawyer or the Programmer?

• Citation: Vol. 2 No. 3
• Publication year: 2019

Jacob Enoch^*

Nowadays, with the rise of "smart contracts" based on blockchain technology, it seems that the question has been decided—the lawyer's work will require, at the very least, a working understanding, and perhaps a deep understanding, of programming. The author of this article discusses the lawyer as programmer.

I have often come across the tired joke about lawyers not being "good at numbers" unless it is to do with their fees. My experience is that this joke has substance. In general, lawyers see themselves as masters of the written or spoken word and not as people whose job it is to deal with numbers (never mind with computer code). And thus, it is customary in the legal profession to classify legal studies as part of the Humanities, as distinct from the exact sciences.

I have always believed that was a basically false classification. My position has been that, whether we are talking about conducting a litigation proceeding (which requires the orderly and logical construction of an argument that leads to a conclusion) or about drafting a contract (building a "tree" of possibilities, relating to...