Book Review: Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code
| Published date | 01 October 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663920906443 |
| Date | 01 October 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
approach will surely promote new and exciting ideas in the fields of citizenship theory
and vulnerable groups in Chilean and Latin-American legal scholarship.
VIVIANA PONCE DE LE ´
ON SOL´
IS
Universidad Austral de Chile, Chile
ORCID iD
Viviana Ponce de Le´on Sol´ıs https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7574-1717
Notes
1. Following T.S. Marshall’s influential work Citizenship and Class, the paradigm of substantive
citizenship understands the notion of citizenship ‘in relation to what it provides to the lives of its
holders’ (p. 5).
2. The coup was a reaction to profound economic reforms advan ced by socialist President
Salvador Allende (1970–1973) and gave way to a dictatorship that lasted almost two decades.
One of the primary missions of the then newly installed military government was to establish a
neoliberal economic system tha t would prevent future governments from adopti ng further
socialist reforms.
3. To wit, the institution of ‘the so-called binominal system, which tended to create two coalitions
with practically the same amount of seats in Congress; the requirement of a congressional
supermajority for changing several laws that were not part of the Constitution; and the creation
of a Constitutional Court in Charge of controlling the compatibility of future legislation with
the existing constitutional text and entrusted with ample powers to invalidate laws’ (p. 2).
4. The Mapuche people are the largest indigenous group in Chile.
PRIMAVERA DE FILIPPI AND AARON WRIGHT, Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018, pp. 300. ISBN 978-0-674-97642-9, £28.95 (hbk).
One of the most talked-about technological developments in the digital arena is distrib-
uted ledger technology, better known by as Blockchain technology. Initially conceived
of as a means of developing digital currencies, or cryptocurrencies, the most famous of
which being Bitcoin, Blockchain has rapidly become a candidate technology for dealing
with a wide range of aspects of commercial life, regulation, property law and so on. The
literature on Blockchain is growing rapidly, although it remains to be seen how many of
the potential applications of Blockchain will eventually make it into everyday use, and
how many will be forgotten about as quickly as they emerged. Nevertheless, Blockchain
has been getting serious attention from business, regulators, policymakers and lawyers
alike, and this book by Primavera de Filippi and Aaron Wright is a key reference point
for anyone who would like to understand the nature and potential of Blockchain, as well
as its associated legal and regulatory challenges.
The book is divided into five parts. The first explains the nature of Blockchain and its
underlying technology, locating its emergence on the timeline of peer-to-peer networks.
Blockchain is in many ways the ultimate peer-to-peer network as it reli es on every
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