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Full-Text Articles in Law
Property, Agency, And The Blockchain: New Technology, And Longstanding Legal Paradigms, Sarah Jane Hughes
Property, Agency, And The Blockchain: New Technology, And Longstanding Legal Paradigms, Sarah Jane Hughes
Articles by Maurer Faculty
This article, presented first as the keynote address at the February 2019 Symposium “The Emerging Blockchain and the Law” at Wayne State, explores the need for repetitive considerations of how blockchain technology affects our traditional concepts of property and agency. The article concludes that well-tested norms of property and agency may matter more, not less, when new technologies such as blockchain are used.
Conceptualizing The Regulation Of Virtual Currencies And Providers: Friction Points In State And Federal Approaches To Regulating Providers Of Payments Execution And Custody Services And Products In The United States, Sarah Jane Hughes
Articles by Maurer Faculty
This essay evaluates the state of regulation by the United States government and State legislatures of participants in emerging virtual-currency businesses. It points to friction points as both the federal government and the States experiment with their own regulatory authority over virtual-currency businesses and provides a taxonomy of differing approaches to regulating such businesses. The essay takes the position that the States need to act in the near term if they wish to maintain their longstanding role as regulators of non-depository providers of financial products and services--or they risk being preempted by Congress or federal regulatory actions. This essay also …
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Developments In The Law Affecting Electronic Payments And Financial Services, Sarah Jane Hughes, Stephen T. Middlebrook, Tom Kierner
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Developments In The Law Affecting Electronic Payments And Financial Services, Sarah Jane Hughes, Stephen T. Middlebrook, Tom Kierner
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Our past surveys have observed that frequent changes in the rules surrounding electronic payments-spurred by both regulation and enforcement actions create uncertainty and make forward progress difficult for many providers. This survey year is no exception: regulators have taken "two steps forward, one step back" on a number of fronts. This survey reports on (1) the proposal by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") regarding "fintech" charters, which states have challenged in actions still pending- (2) changes to Regulation CC regarding remote check deposit and disputes over altered or forged checks-(3) the Supreme Court's decision in Expression …
Advancing A Framework For Regulating Cryptocurrency Payments Intermediaries, Sarah Jane Hughes, Stephen T. Middlebrook
Advancing A Framework For Regulating Cryptocurrency Payments Intermediaries, Sarah Jane Hughes, Stephen T. Middlebrook
Articles by Maurer Faculty
This Article looks at competing models for regulating providers of services to individuals and businesses that take cryptocurrencies in payment for goods and services, including operators of online wallets and exchanges, and other cryptocurrency market intermediaries whose functions resemble "money service businesses" or "money transmission." We conclude that, in addition to whatever "money services" or "money transmission "prudential regulation the States or federal government may adopt, the operation of wallets and exchanges requires a new commercial law that lays out rights and liabilities of cryptocurrency users in a robust and transparent fashion. We use Article 4A of the Uniform Commercial …
Are These Game Changers? Developments In The Law Affecting Virtual Currencies, Prepaid Payroll Cards, Online Tribal Lending, And Payday Lenders, Sarah Jane Hughes, Stephen T. Middlebrook
Are These Game Changers? Developments In The Law Affecting Virtual Currencies, Prepaid Payroll Cards, Online Tribal Lending, And Payday Lenders, Sarah Jane Hughes, Stephen T. Middlebrook
Articles by Maurer Faculty
In the year since our last survey, there have been significant legal developments in the areas of virtual currencies, prepaid payroll cards, online tribal lending, and payday lending. What connects some of these topics is an increasingly common strategy by federal banking regulators to influence and control the actions of entities that are not directly subject to their supervision through the relationships such entities have with regulated financial institutions. These developments also demonstrate robust state legislative and regulatory action relating to the provision of electronic payments and financial services, and document class actions alleging violations of federal and state laws. …
Did New York State Just Anoint Virtual Currencies By Proposing To Regulate Them, Or Will Regulation Spoil Them For Some?, Sarah Jane Hughes
Did New York State Just Anoint Virtual Currencies By Proposing To Regulate Them, Or Will Regulation Spoil Them For Some?, Sarah Jane Hughes
Articles by Maurer Faculty
This Essay previews issues raised by the general subject of regulating virtual currencies and the specific efforts of New York State’s Department of Financial Services’ proposed Virtual Currency Regulatory Framework (the BitLicense) in particular. It focuses on five topics in the proposal and their interplay with the current regulation of “money services” and “money transmission” in other states, using the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Washington approaches on a few common topics for comparison purposes. It also asks whether regulation of virtual currencies is likely to cause more widespread adoption of virtual currencies or to frustrate the proponents …