The adequacy of the Emirati legal framework in regulating and enforcing smart contracts

This study aims to analyze and evaluate the adequacy of the current legal and regulatory framework governing smart contracts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Smart contracts are self-executing agreements encoded in programming languages, operating automatically via blockchain platforms without human intervention. The significance of this research emerges in light of the UAE’s growing reliance on digital transformation and its national strategies promoting the adoption of emerging technologies in commerce, finance, and public services. A qualitative methodology was adopted, based on semi-structured interviews with legal and technical experts, along with doctrinal analysis of federal laws relevant to electronic transactions, cybersecurity, and data protection. The study was also enriched through a comparative legal review of jurisdictions such as Singapore, Arizona, and Germany. The findings reveal a clear legislative gap in the UAE, most notably the absence of a precise legal definition of smart contracts, a lack of comprehensive regulatory mechanisms, and limited judicial capacity to interpret code-based obligations. These shortcomings reduce the enforceability and legal certainty of smart contracts in practice. Accordingly, the study proposes a set of legal and institutional reforms, including: establishing an official legal definition of smart contracts; drafting specialized executive regulations; creating a national regulatory authority for digital contracts; and developing digital arbitration platforms. This study also recommends integrating legaltech education into judicial training programs and encourages academic research into the interplay between smart contracts, artificial intelligence, and digital rights. This research represents a novel contribution to the Arabic legal literature by addressing a cutting-edge issue through empirical insights and comparative legal models. This study offers practical recommendations to support the UAE’s ambition to establish a secure, adaptive, and future-ready legal environment for smart contracting.