HODL the Void – Welcome to the Law of Rule

Description:
In this talk, I revisit the oft-used formulation of ‘code is law’, typically associated with legal and computational formalism and its ambition to codify governance in its entirety. By analysing the operation of blockchain-based smart-contract trading, I show that today ‘code is law’ begins to designate something else: automated smart contract execution has become a structural condition through which capitalism evolves into increasingly abstract, frictionless stages. I argue that this transformation requires a corresponding legal form, not deliberative law, but a law of rule optimised to reduce the drag of the live world. I conclude by arguing that the belief that law can restrain capitalism is ultimately untenable, despite its widespread persistence. We might rather call our condition HODL the Void: a compulsory commitment to sustaining abstraction, one that feeds on the very matter of life.

Bio:
Andrea Leiter is the Director of Research at the Amsterdam Center for International Law. Her research focuses on global inequality and transnational governance through private actors in the digital economy. Her current project “(Re)coding Values: Decentralised Autonomous Organisations as Pathways toward Sustainable Societies?” is funded by a VENI grant of the Dutch Research Council (2024-2027). In addition to her academic research, Andrea also co-developed ecological and social justice projects at the intersection of blockchain technology, economics and governance like Sovereign Nature Initiative and A Thousand Breaths.

Registration

SCILJ appreciates your registration at scilj@juridicum.su.se before Monday 16 February.