Digital Courts Trial Decentralized Justice, Real World Weighs Verdict

The decentralized court falls under the umbrella of Aragon Association's decentralized platform that enables users to create a variety of organizations and companies.

What remains to be seen is whether the judgements made by jurors of the platform can be enforced and if they hold weight in the eyes of conventional legal systems and courts.

A viable alternative to traditional courts?Aragon Court's dependence on game theory and consensus leads to some interesting questions around the viability of the platform becoming an alternative for various disputes to be settled outside of traditional courts.

Unlike a conventional trial jury that will hear evidence and deliberate over the outcome of a court case among its members, Aragon Court's jurors do not have any lines of communication with each other.

Cointelegraph reached out to United States-based corporate lawyer Dean Steinbeck for a legal perspective on the potential of digital courts like Aragon.

"On the one hand, skin in the game ensures that jurors make rational decisions. On the other hand, jurors will not vote based on what they think is right, but based on what they think the majority of jurors will think is right. So there could be a situation where a juror has a strong conviction of something but is afraid to vote for it because he or she might lose money. The safest bet will always be to vote with what you think is the majority decision. Ultimately, that's not justice but populism."

Legally binding?Another pertinent question surrounding the future of digital courts is whether rulings of disputes hold any weight from a formal legal standpoint.

"Today, third-party arbitration and mediation is a huge business. There is no reason why parties can't contractually agree to the outcome of an Aragon Court ruling. When parties agree to adjudicate their disputes via Aragon, those decisions will be binding."

While Steinbeck considers such a legal contract as binding, Cuende believes that a ruling by a traditional court may be what is needed to give credence to the Aragon Court, "The true test of this would be a case convened in the Aragon Court being taken to a conventional court."

What about the jurors?A dispute resolution mechanism like Aragon Court does not require jurors to have any formal legal qualifications or background.