Research methods for contract law and technology

Pietro Ortolani

Chapter 10 in Research Methods for Contract Law and Scholarship, 2025, pp 235-255 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter maps out the methodological opportunities and challenges arising out of the interaction between contract law and technology, with a specific focus on contract law scholarship. First, the chapter sets the scene by providing an overview of how digitalization affects contract law, either facilitating the process of contracting or raising new issues and casting doubts on traditional contract law doctrines and concepts. Against this background, the chapter scrutinizes the specific role of contract law scholarship, illustrating the new opportunities and problems that digitalization creates for those conducting research in the field of contract law. To this end, the chapter distinguishes between the application of technological tools to the lifecycle of a contract (“technology for contract law”) and the application of contract law to technological developments that do not specifically concern contracting, but that could nonetheless potentially upset some well-established contract law paradigms (“contract law for technology”). Finally, the chapter draws some general conclusions concerning the future of technology-oriented research methodologies in contract law scholarship.

Keywords: Law and technology; Digital law; Contractware; Smart contracts; Interdisciplinarity; Methodology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035316465
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