Hi all
Happy holidays - was good to see some of you on the holiday call!
We wanted to put forward a proposal for starting an “English/common law” sub-group/branch/section within LexPunk. Some of the ideas/reasons behind the sub-group are:
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LexPunk’s current focus is primarily US law, with additional and growing focus on EU law. Adding English/common law to this would extend the geographical/jurisdictional reach of LexPunk and would encourage participation and collaboration from across the world. As an open source, decentralised legal initiative LexPunk should have a global focus and presence. Quite a few LexPunk members have experience in important common law jurisdictions and it would be great to have a place to focus and share that experience.
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Much of the most recent case law impacting blockchain and crypto has an English/common law element (eg AA v Persons Unknown, Quoine, Fetch.AI(1) etc). English judges often take post-career positions in English/common law jurisdictions. Developing a resource for the interpretation of this body of law, as well as open source precedents, would help to unify legal practice and interpretation across various key jurisdictions. As discussed on the call, we also have a fairly advanced set of crypto-dispute resolution rules.
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Many of the “crypto-friendly” (and also “tax-friendly”) jurisdictions - including Singapore, Cayman, BVI, Gibraltar, Australia, Ireland etc. - in which crypto-businesses choose to operate are based on English/common law. These are some of the most popular jurisdictions for blockchain and crypto projects globally, and there are lots of legal developments and innovations already taking place. There are a large number of projects and other market participants in these jurisdictions that would benefit from a LexPunk sub-group/branch/section. It could serve as a focal point for further development and innovation, assist in identifying areas of law in these jurisdictions that are in need of reform, and help to mobilise a consistent response to regulators. This response would be even stronger if organised on a global English/common law basis, using input from across those jurisdictions.
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There are numerous legal practitioners both in the UK and in other jurisdictions that would welcome the opportunity to participate in this new LexPunk group. A number of younger participants in the English/common law legal market are also keen for an opportunity to participate in the LexPunk group.
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Positive English/common law reform could incentivise US/European law reform to take a similar path as a defensive measure (and vice-versa).
As a first step, Syd has kindly created an English/Common Law Workspace within Telegram. We can use this as a sub-group for English/Common Law based discussion and take any proposals that have legs to the wider group. Please let Syd know if you would like to be added to this group. Of course, there will be a whole load of overlap with the work that LexPunk does in other jurisdictions so the group should be open to anyone interested and not just English/Common law lawyers.