Reliability is a principle hurdle for human transacting. Law has classically helped to fill that gap by providing legal recognition and enforcement for bargains described with adequate detail and specificity: a “contract”. While traditionally set out in writing, the blueprints for our deals are increasingly set out in computer code.  In their simplest form, aimed at gaining reliability from automaticity, so called “smart contracts” have emerged as techniques for automating relatively simple, “on-chain” transactions.  More complex contracting via code is often referred to as “computable contracting,” and platforms and techniques for this are emerging as well.

Over the past two decades, many of our traditional, “legacy” legal systems around the world have given recognition to contracts expressed in code, in whole or in part, provided they otherwise meet the requirements set out for enforceable bargains. In the United States, UETA and the doctrine of incorporation by reference are important sources of law. This recognition has opened the field to the further development of contracting software.