A Socio-Legal Theory of Money for the Digital Commercial Society: A New Analytical Framework to Understand Cryptoassets

by Israel Cedillo Lazcano, John Linarelli (Editor), Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell (Editor)

Overview

This book poses the question: do we need a new body of regulations and the constitution of new regulatory agents to face the evolution of money in the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

After the Global Financial Crisis and the subsequent introduction of Distributed Ledger Technologies in monetary matters, multiple opinions claim that we are in the middle of a financial revolution that will eliminate the need for central banks and other financial institutions to form bonds of trust on our behalf. In contrast to these arguments, this book argues that we are not witnessing a revolutionary expression, but an evolutionary one that we can trace back to the very origin of money.

Accordingly, the book provides academics, regulators and policy makers with a multidisciplinary analysis that includes elements such as the relevance of intellectual property rights, which are disregarded in the legal analysis of money. Furthermore, the book proposes the idea that traditional analyses on the exercise of the lex monetae ignore the role of inside monies and technological infrastructures developed and supported by the private sector, as exemplified in the evolution of the cryptoassets market and in cases such as Banco de Portugal v Waterlow & Sons.

The book puts forward a proposal for the design and regulation of new payment systems and invites the reader to look beyond the dissemination of individual Distributed Ledger Technologies such as Bitcoin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509969678
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/21/2025
Series:	Hart Studies in Commercial and Financial Law
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Israel Cedillo Lazcano is Associate Professor in Banking and IP/IT Law, and Director of Research and Graduate Studies at Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP), Mexico. He obtained his PhD in Law at the University of Edinburgh in 2021, his Bachelor´s degree in International Law in 2009, a Master´s degree in Anthropologic Studies of Mexico in 2012 and a Master´s degree in Governance and Globalisation in 2014, all from UDLAP. Professionally, he has worked as Intellectual Property Advisor and Personal Data Protection Officer for different institutions and was editor of Intellectual Property for SCRIPTed. His academic research is focused on intellectual property, artificial intelligence, financial innovation, and the legal nature of money. He has won national and international research prizes such as the 2013 FELABAN Prize (the Competition for Legal Monographs for Lawyers under 35 years old, sponsored by the Latin American Banks Federation), and the Second Prize of the 2015 Manuel Espinosa Yglesias Prize, sponsored by the Espinosa Yglesias Research Centre.

John Linarelli is Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.

Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell is Associate Professor of Commercial Law at University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain. She is also currently Sir Roy Goode Scholar at UNIDROIT, Rome (2021-22) and previously held the Chair of Excellence at Harris Manchester College, Oxford University.

Teresa is an arbitrator at the Madrid Court of Arbitration and the Spanish Court of Arbitration, a member of the Spanish Advertising Standards Tribunal (Autocontrol), member of the European Commission Expert Group on Liability and New Technologies, member of European Union Expert Group for the Observatory on the Online Platform Economy, Delegate for Spain before UNIDROIT and UNCITRAL Working Group VI on Security Interests, and member nominated by UNIDROIT of the Expert Study Group on a Fourth Protocol for the Cape Town Convention on International Security Interests.

She has held fellowships at the European Central Bank Legal Research Programme 2018 with a project on Fintech regulation, the Transatlantic Technology Law Forum, Stanford Law School, and was a Marie Curie Fellow at the Centre of European Law and Politics (ZERP), University of Bremen. In addition she has held visiting professorships at Oxford University, Toulouse 1 University Capitole, Columbia Law School, Tulane University Law School, the University of the Andes, the University of Turin, the University of Tokyo and University College London.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Socio-economic Analysis of the Concept of Money
2. Who Can Create Money?
3. Legal Analysis of the Concept of Money
4. Legal-Economic Analysis of Cryptoassets
5. Shadow Banking and a New Generation of Intermediaries
6. Designing a Lex Monetae for the Digital Commercial Society
7. Epilogue