UKJT consultation on issuance and transfer of digital securities - Law Society response

The proposals

The UK Jurisdiction Taskforce (UKJT) consultation ‘The Issuance and Transfer of Digital Securities Under English Private Law’ focuses on the issue and transfer of equity or debt securities on blockchain and DLT systems.

The consultation sought responses from members of the public, particularly in the legal, digital and financial sectors on one question.

Responders were asked to comment on any material issues of concern to stakeholders relating to the focus of the consultation.

Our view

We welcome guidance that accommodates for future technical changes. This can help legal advisers to support clients on digital assets most effectively. We recommend that guidance should be developed in consultation with solicitors and firms of different sizes.

We would also welcome guidance on dealing with practical difficulties that arise when working with digital assets.

It is helpful to understand the need for the law to be sufficiently adaptable to recognise the continuance of property rights in digital assets where technology has changed.

We also consider that it would be useful to align with the prior work of the Law Commission on electronic signatures and of the Industry Working Group on Electronic Execution of Documents, where some of these issues raised by UKJT have been addressed in detail.

Next steps

The consultation closed on 30 November 2022.

Read the consultation on the Lawtech UK website.