(Digital) Things as Objects of Property Rights: What Can Crypto Learn From Comparative Law?

Abstract This review article engages critically with Christian von Bar’s proposed definition of things as objects of property rights and their proposed place as one category in a tripartite taxonomy of the objects of private law; both expounded as part of a broader aim of bringing together the property laws of the Member States of the European Union and the UK as part of a single picture. The article first contextualises these proposals against the background of the UNIDROIT Principles on Digital Assets and the ongoing debates in England and Wales as to the property status of cryptoassets such as bitcoin; then offers a primer for both common law and civilian law readers on the structure, content and objectives of the book. After setting out the proposed taxonomy and the core theses upon which it is premised, the article then evaluates von Bar’s proposals and illustrates how they can inform and guide the debates as international and domestic laws grapple with the challenges posed by new and novel objects of economic value. The book under review is an abridged version of the first two parts of Gemeineuropäisches Sachenrecht, originally published in German by CH Beck in 2015, which were translated into English by Jason Grant Allen and reworked into a standalone text published by OUP in 2023.