Digital Assets and Property: Comparative Remarks from a Civil Law Perspective

Abstract

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.