A Special Public Bill Committee of the House of Lords has launched a Call for Evidence to consider the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill.

We have previously commented on the Bill here. It was introduced to Parliament following a report from the Law Commission (discussed here) which recommended the introduction of legislation to clarify the legal status of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and carbon credits.

It was the Law Commission’s view that certain types of digital assets are things to which property rights relate, but that they do not easily fit within the two categories of personal property that the law has traditionally recognised (i.e. things in action and things in possession). It therefore proposed the recognition of a ‘third category’ of things. However, it also recommended that any legislation be deliberately agnostic about the characteristics of such ‘third category things’ so as to unlock the further development of the common law and enable it to respond to technological developments.

The Bill adopts the Law Commission’s recommendations, simply stating that:

A thing (including a thing that is digital or electronic in nature) is not prevented from being the object of personal property rights merely because it is neither –

 a thing in possession, nor

 a thing in action.

 The Bill received its second reading on 13 November 2024, where it was committed to a Special Bill Committee. That Committee has since been formed and has launched a Call for Evidence, asking the following questions:

6. Please could you summarise your view on the Bill in fewer than 300 words?
7. Do you think that the Bill, in its current form, is necessary and effective?
8. Would the Bill have any negative or unexpected consequences?
9. How could the Bill be improved? How should it be amended to achieve this?
10. Should the Bill have retroactive effect?
11. What implications could the Bill have for the development of this area of common law, both in England and Wales and in other legal jurisdictions?

The Committee will begin hearing oral evidence on 26 November 2024, and the deadline for responses to the Call for Evidence is 20 December 2024.

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