Contract Automation from Telematic Agreements to Smart Contracts

Technology creates new opportunities for socio-economic relations, commercial exchange and overcoming national borders, allowing to conclude and execute agreements more quickly regardless of the distance between the parties. However, technology tests the contractual institution making it necessary to adapt it to immediate, transnational, automatic uses, and to the legal issues deriving from them. This chapter aims to analyze the evolution of the relationship between technology and contract, through the fil rouge of contract automation, with specific regard to the telematic agreements and the next frontier of “smart contracts”.