Professor Amy J. Schmitz recently published her article with Colin Rule, “Online Dispute Resolution for Smart Contracts” in the Journal of Dispute Resolution.  This article explains how smart contracts built in the blockchain are quietly revolutionizing traditional transactions despite their questionable status under current law. At the same time, disputes regarding smart contracts are inevitable, and parties will need means for dealing with smart contract issues.
This article tackles this challenge, and proposes that parties turn to online dispute resolution (ODR) to efficiently and fairly resolve smart contract disputes. Furthermore, the article acknowledges the benefits and challenges of current blockchain ODR start-ups, and proposes specific ideas for how designers could address those challenges and incorporate ODR to provide just resolutions that will not stymie efficiencies of smart contracts.
To read the article see 2019 Journal of Dispute Resolution 103; University of Missouri School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2019-11.