Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice, recently gave the keynote speech at the LawTech UK Conference 2025. He highlighted the growth and potential of the LawTech industry in the UK and the importance of legal frameworks for digital assets and AI.
LawTech Industry in the UK
He said that the LawTech industry is still in its infancy in Europe but has matured in the US. The UK has the potential to be a serious competitor in the global LawTech market, which was approaching $30 billion last year. It has a strong legal infrastructure, including English law, the Commercial Court, the Business and Property Courts, and London arbitration. The UK is home to 350 LawTech corporations, and UK legal services contributed £37 billion to the UK economy last year.
UK Jurisdiction Taskforce
The UKJT has published three Legal Statements to clarify the law and remove legal impediments to the adoption of new technologies.
- In November 2019, the UKJT published a legal statement on the status of cryptoassets and smart contracts under English private law. It was followed by the Law Commission’s report on Digital Assets on 28 June 2023 and now by the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill that is proceeding through the House of Lords.
- In February 2023, the UKJT published a legal statement on the issuance and transfer of digital securities under English private law.
- In April 2024, the UKJT released a legal statement on digital assets and English insolvency law.
The UKJT also published digital dispute resolution rules in 2021, which he said have been widely adopted.
New UKJT projects
Control in relation to third category digital assets
The UKJT is working on non-binding guidance on the legal concept of ‘control’ in relation to third category digital assets. This work is intended to facilitate the development of common law and provide market confidence for the adoption of English law in digital asset transactions.
Liability for harms caused by AI
The UKJT is producing a fourth legal statement on the ability of English law to provide redress for harms caused by AI. This statement will focus on harms caused to third parties and whether the existing law of torts can adequately respond. It is needed due to similar projects in the EU and the US, the calls for AI regulation in the UK, and market uncertainty about legal liability for AI.
International Jurisdiction Taskforce
The UKJT is forming an international taskforce to bring together legal thinkers from main private law jurisdictions to understand common ground in approaches to digital assets and digital trading. The aim is to achieve some level of private law alignment between jurisdictions like New York, English, Singapore, Dubai, French, and German law.
The speech concluded by saying that the legal sector is a unique selling point (USP) for the UK, with a judiciary of undoubted integrity and respected lawyers. AI and digital trading are likely to fundamentally affect the legal sector.
