SMART CONTRACTS AND AUTOMATION AS APPLIED DEVELOPMENTS OF LEGALTECH IN COLOMBIA

Abstract

Legaltech is a reality that has come to completely modify the traditional way in which legal services are provided; thus, it manifests itself as an essential part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which aims to use technological tools in the exercise of the legal profession and for the benefit of clients. An application of technology in Law that has generated questions and opened the way to new ways of conducting legal business in the world and in Colombia, is related to the automation of contracts and Smart Contracts, which have similarities but at the same time with numerous differences concerning traditionally concluded contracts, either in physical or electronic means. This text demostrate that smart contracts can be considered as true contracts in the Colombian legal system, and not simple instruments to perform services, which are capable of providing greater security to the parties, while at the same time demonstrating a materialization of the autonomy of the will to carry out legal business. However, there are still situations typical of technology that raising questions about their application and nature as contracts and that to date, with the existing technology; they still do not have an answer.