Professor Harry Surden of the University of Colorado has posted Computable Contracts Explained – Part 1, at Concurring Opinions.

Here are excerpts from the post:

I had the occasion to teach “Computable Contracts” to the Stanford Class on Legal Informatics recently. [Click here for video of the presentation.] Although I have written about computable contracts here, I thought I’d explain the concept in a more accessible form.

I. Overview: What is a Computable Contract?

What is a Computable Contract? In brief, a computable contract is a contract that a computer can “understand.” In some instances, computable contracting enables a computer to automatically assess whether the terms of a contract have been met.

How can computers understand contracts? […] The short answer here is that the contracts that are made computable don’t involve the abstract, difficult or relatively uncertain legal topics that tend to occupy lawyers. Rather (for the moment at least), computers are typically given contract terms and conditions with relatively well-defined subjects and determinable criteria that tend not to involve significant legal or factual uncertainty in the average case.

For this reason, there are limits to computable contracts: only small subsets of contracting scenarios can be made computable. However, it turns out that these contexts are economically significant. Not all contracts can be made computable, but importantly, some can.

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Tags: computable, Professor Harry Surden, University of Colorado