DIGITAL ASSETS AND PROPERTY: COMPARATIVE REMARKS FROM A CIVIL LAW PERSPECTIVE

This paper reflects on one of the most relevant aspects of the so-called digital revolution that has invested contemporary societies and is transforming them in a profound way, consisting in the emergence of a dematerialized dimension of mobility of ‘objects’ that exist only electronically and in a process state, as entities susceptible to continuous mutation and transformation. It investigates the legal qualification of these new entities, adopting a comparative perspective, with particular regard to the civil law and the common law traditions. The 'proprietary' logic continues to appear as a key that is not easy to replace for configuring a relationship of belonging of the new digital entities. However, the difference between the continental and the common law models of property is at the origin of diverging outcomes in the case law of the various jurisdictions. The model of property accepted in the Anglo-American tradition seems more inclined to welcome digital entities within the realm of property.