<aside> <img src="/icons/user_gray.svg" alt="/icons/user_gray.svg" width="40px" />

</aside>

LexDAOo gallery.png

<aside> <img src="/icons/user_gray.svg" alt="/icons/user_gray.svg" width="40px" />

Authors

Giulio Quarta Domenico Leone

</aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/info-alternate_gray.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Sponsor

https://embed.notionlytics.com/wt/ZXlKM2IzSnJjM0JoWTJWVWNtRmphMlZ5U1dRaU9pSmhja0kxZGxsM2FtWktXVmQwVGsxdVlraGhTeUlzSW5CaFoyVkpaQ0k2SWpsa1ltWmtNemt3TmpJNE5EUmpOMlZpT0dJd016azJZelU1TVRZd09HTXhJbjA9

INTRODUCTION

What are legal engineers building? Where and how?

This Knowledge Element aims to give an overview of LexDAO’s Github repository, where their work in terms of open source software development is available for everybody to see, take inspiration from, and transform.

The objective of LexDAO is, to put it simply, empower and expand the field of Legal Engineering.

To start,

What is Legal Engineering?

Legal Engineering is a relatively new field that intersects technology and law. It involves using technological tools and methodologies to improve legal processes, services, and outcomes: this could involve creating smart contracts, automating legal processes, or using data analysis to inform legal decision-making. The eventual goal is to make the legal system more efficient, accessible, and transparent.

What is LexDAO's approach to the subject?

LexDAO engages in various activities, including research and development in legal engineering, training initiatives, and advocacy for open-source law and blockchain-based dispute resolution. They also collaborate with educational institutions and nonprofits, focusing on student-led projects and the advancement of public goods, and provide consultancy services in web3 development and decentralized organizational structures.

*We want to thank LexDAO for supporting CER. To decide on it, they voted through their DAO voting mechanisms, which is an interesting topic in itself. You can check the vote here, as it’s “on-chain”! https://snapshot.org/#/lexgrant.eth/proposal/0x5d17b59095b2273060bdf293ab9859e5f295a4c0ee5cfa314f7eda2315b84aa2*

CONTEXT

It is usual for DAOs to work on Github — the now-Microsoft-owned collaborative platform that allows multiple people to work on projects simultaneously, tracking changes while maintaining the integrity of the whole — it is in their nature to be developed in a transparent and open source way (by the way, do you know of Radicle, the decentralized alternative to GitHub?)

The need for open source code is particularly evident in legal use cases. LexDAO advocates for the transformation of legal systems from slow, centralized analog procedures to the implementation of decentralized ledger technologies where appropriate. This change can result in:

  1. Saving time and resources by automating processes, particularly bureaucratic ones, and improving the clarity of such procedures.
  2. Redirecting the saved time and resources to more valuable areas. Human intervention will always be necessary though: LexDAO supports the statement "Code is not Law" first developed by Q Blockchain (another CER Featured Project they are collaborating with!)
  3. Reducing the overall cost of legal infrastructure. This allows communities, networks, cities, and states to design better and more inclusive systems aligned with their values, reducing reliance on expensive legal experts.

Smart Contracts, Explained

A smart contract is just like a regular contract, containing terms and clauses of an agreement of any degree of complexity. The main difference lies in its form and execution: a smart contract uses computer code to execute the terms autonomously of human intervention.

A legal engineer is to a smart contract what a lawyer or legal counsel is to the formation of a “common” commercial law contract, applying knowledge of both legal systems and technology to provide interested parties a set of terms which self-execute once an agreement is reached (often unilaterally), or specific conditions are met.