GDF Response to UK Parliament Call for Evidence on the Property (Digital Assets etc.) Bill
GDF convened its members to analyse the House of Lords Call for Evidence on the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill [HL].
Overall GDF is supportive of the aim of the bill and the broader aims of the recommendations made in the Call for Evidence (referred to henceforth as the CfE). GDF believes firmly in their intent of the The House of Lords Special Public Bill Committee on the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill [HL] to support innovation. Providing legal certainty will be crucial to the growth of the UK’s digital markets and its competitiveness as a jurisdiction.
Our key points of feedback were:
1. We are supportive of the objectives of the Bill and its aim of providing greater legal certainty for digital assets; and
2. To ensure that the courts have sufficient flexibility to apply the common law to Digital Assets going forwards we would support additional clarity for example in the explanatory notes clarifying that it is ultimately for the courts to decide how to characterise digital assets (and other digital things) under the common law and that the Bill is not intended to require the courts to determine that any digital asset must fall within a third category of personal property.
