This panel will focus on how emerging technologies like smart contracts, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies are transforming the legal landscape, particularly in relation to dispute resolution, contract law, and corporate governance in the digital business paradigm.
As AI-driven technologies and decentralized financial tools reshape business models, traditional legal frameworks must adapt to address new challenges and opportunities. This panel intends to explore how these innovations are redefining legal processes and dispute resolution systems, with a special emphasis on the role of cryptocurrencies in facilitating digital transactions and raising regulatory concerns.

• Smart Contracts and Legal Automation: Smart contracts, driven by AI, offer businesses automated, self-executing contracts with minimal human intervention. This segment will examine the legal enforceability of smart contracts, how they function in business transactions, and their potential to streamline contract law by automating compliance, execution, and dispute resolution.
• Blockchain and Decentralized Legal Frameworks: Blockchain technology’s ability to create transparent and immutable records presents new legal challenges and opportunities. This part of the panel will focus on how decentralized legal frameworks, such as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), are reshaping corporate governance, compliance, and dispute resolution.
• Cryptocurrencies and Digital Transactions: Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are becoming essential tools for businesses operating in decentralized financial systems. The panel will discuss the legal and regulatory challenges posed by cryptocurrencies in contract enforcement, fraud prevention, taxation, and dispute resolution, particularly when used within smart contracts and blockchain-based transactions.
• Digital Dispute Resolution Tools: The rise of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platforms, enhanced by blockchain and AI, offers new ways to resolve disputes efficiently and transparently. The discussion will explore how smart contracts can be embedded with ODR mechanisms, allowing for automated arbitration and dispute settlement in cases of contract breaches or transactional disputes involving cryptocurrencies and decentralized platforms.
• Regulatory Challenges and Innovations: As AI, smart contracts, and blockchain continue to advance, there are significant regulatory hurdles, particularly in cross-border business transactions. Discussion will analyze the implications of the EU AI Act, Digital Services Act, and Digital Markets Act on smart contract regulation and ODR tools, highlighting the role of law in fostering innovation while maintaining consumer protection and fairness.
• Ethical and Legal Implications in Automated Dispute Resolution: As AI increasingly handles legal disputes, ethical considerations surrounding accountability, fairness, and transparency will be critical. Discussion will discuss the role of AI in ensuring just outcomes and its implications for the future of legal professionals.

This panel will feature experts in AI, law, blockchain technology, dispute resolution, and corporate governance, including legal practitioners, scholars, and technologists who are at the forefront of these emerging legal trends, contributing to a multidisciplinary dialogue on the future of legal frameworks and business governance in a decentralized digital world. It intends to provide valuable insights for legal professionals, academics, and policymakers who wish to understand how AI, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies are transforming future of law, dispute resolution, and the regulatory environment. The panel will provide strategic insights on balancing innovation with legal and ethical accountability in the emerging business paradigm.

Flora Amato, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Marco Giacalone, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Gioia Arnone, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Emilia Richiello, University of Bologna, Italy