Which court would you go to enforce the “terms” of a smart contract?
Select jurisdiction
Germany
In Germany, the Smart Contract can be enforced at all local and regional courts in
compliance with the ZPO and GVG law books. It should be noted, however, that most courts
are not particularly technically proficient. It is therefore advisable to turn to a special
chamber such as the IT chamber of the Hamburg Regional Court. However, it is a
prerequisite that the parties have some connection to Hamburg. For example, they can
determine when creating the smart contract that the Hamburg Regional Court is to be the
competent court in the event of disputes.
India
The parties to a smart contract can agree to an exclusive jurisdiction clause in the Contract. In India, the jurisdiction of a civil court has several aspects: Subject-matter, Pecuniary, Territorial, and Original and Appellate. Parties can approach any civil court in India after evaluating the above factors.
Brazil
It would depend on the subject and the object targeted by the smart contract.
Poland
Depending on the content and nature of the contract, the court competent to hear the case should be determined by the principles specified in the Polish Civil Procedure Code. In Poland, there are no common courts that specialize particularly in IT law and therefore this might be an additional difficulty for the enforcement of the contract. This said, since in principle the smart contract should be self-enforceable, the issue of enforceability of the contract in front of common courts should not be of great importance.
