Smart Contracts and Blockchain Technology: From Paper to Code, Paving the Way for the Reshaping of Traditional Contract Theory in E-Commerce – A Comparative Study

Background Smart contracts depending on blockchain technology have emerged as a transformative mechanism for the execution of contractual obligations in electronic commerce and digital transactions. Their growing adoption in commercial practice has generated significant legal debate concerning their compatibility with traditional contract theory and existing civil and commercial legal frameworks. Smart contracts raise complex questions relating to contractual consent, interpretation, defects of will, allocation of liability, electronic signatures, judicial intervention, and the enforceability of court decisions within decentralized and immutable blockchain environments. Methods This study adopts a doctrinal and comparative legal methodology to examine the legal nature of smart contracts as code-based agreements operating through blockchain technology. It analyses the relationship between smart contracts and classical contract principles by comparing traditional legal rules governing contract formation and enforcement with the technological characteristics of blockchain systems, including automation, decentralization, immutability, and self-execution. The study further evaluates selected legislative and regulatory approaches relating to electronic contracts, electronic signatures, and digital transactions in comparative legal systems. Results The study demonstrates that smart contracts should not be regarded as mechanisms existing outside traditional contract law, but rather as hybrid instruments combining legal commitment with automated execution through computer code. It further finds that the traditional elements of contract formation, including offer and acceptance, lawful subject matter, contractual intention, form requirements, and electronic signatures, may generally be satisfied within smart-contract environments. Nevertheless, the research identifies several legal and practical challenges associated with smart contracts, particularly coding errors, security vulnerabilities, informational asymmetries, immutability, defects of consent, difficulties of contractual interpretation, and obstacles to judicial enforcement on decentralized ledgers. Conclusions The paper concludes that smart contracts can be effectively integrated into existing legal frameworks through hybrid contractual documentation, targeted legislative regulation, and adaptive judicial interpretation. Such integration would allow legal systems to benefit from the efficiency, certainty, transparency, and reduced transaction costs offered by blockchain technology while simultaneously preserving contractual justice, legal certainty, and consumer protection.