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PROF. ELIZA MIK
Assistant Professor

Tel

Fax

Email

Office

(852) 3943 3330

(852) 2994 2505

elizamik@cuhk.edu.hk

Room 623
Faculty of Law
6/F, Lee Shau Kee Building
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Sha Tin, NT, Hong Kong SAR

Dr Eliza Mik has joined the Faculty of Law in January 2021. Prior to that she was researching and teaching at the Singapore Management University from January 2010 until December 2018, and then at Melbourne Law School throughout 2019. Before joining academia, she worked in-house for a number of software and telecommunications companies in Australia, Poland, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. She advised on software licensing, technology procurement, digital signatures, and e-commerce regulation. Her PhD focused on the private law aspects of e-commerce and on general problems of transaction automation. From 2014, she has actively researched smart contracts and blockchains, with a special emphasis on the legal prerequisites of their successful implementation in mainstream commerce. Eliza has advised the World Bank and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. At present, she is a member of the UNCITRAL Expert Group for the Digital Economy, a member of the Inclusive Global Legal Innovation Platform on ODR (iGLIP, Hong Kong), a Research Associate at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Society and Technology (TILT, Netherlands) and an Affiliate Researcher with the Centre for AI and Digital Ethics at the University of Melbourne (CAIDE, Australia).

EDUCATION

  • 2007 PhD (Law), University of Sydney
  • 2003 Master of Laws, University of Sydney
  • 1994-1997 Master of Laws, University of Warsaw
  • 1994-1995 Diploma in English and European Law, British Centre for English and European Legal Studies

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Information Technology Law
  • Contract Law
  • Legal Technologies
  • Smart Contracts
  • Transaction Automation

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Articles (single-authored)

  • ‘Much Ado about Artificial Intelligence or: the automation of contract formation’ (2023) International Journal of Law and Information Technology (available online at: https://academic.oup.com/ijlit/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ijlit/eaad004/7092982?redirectedFrom=fulltext)
  • ‘Smart Contracts: Tales of Trust and Certainty’ (2022) Technology & Regulation (available online at: https://techreg.org/article/view/11784)
  • ‘Contracts in Code?’ (2021) Law, Innovation & Technology (available online at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3913783)
  • The Disappearing Computer: Consent and Disclosure in the World of Smart Objects (2020) 3 European Journal of Consumer Law 567 (available online at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3732677)
  • ‘From Automation to Autonomy: Some Non-existent Problems in Contract Law’ (2020) Journal of Contract Law (available online at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3635346)
  • ‘The Limits of Visual Law’ (2020) Journal of Open Access to Law (available online at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3543730)
  • ‘Smart Contracts: A Requiem’ (2019) Journal of Contract Law (available online at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3499998)
  • ‘Electronic Platforms: Openness, Transparency and Privacy Issues’ (2019) European Review of Private Law
  • ‘The Legal Problems Surrounding Blockchains, A Basic Overview’ (2018) SAL Practitioner
  • ‘Smart Contracts: Terminology, Technical Limitations and Real-World Complexity’ (2017) Law, Innovation & Technology (available online at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3038406)
  • ‘Private Lawmaking in Commercial Cyberspace’ (2016) Pandora’s Box – The Annual Academic Journal of the UQ Justice and the Law Society of the University of Queensland
  • ‘The Erosion of Autonomy in Online Consumer Transactions’ (2016) Law, Innovation & Technology
  • ‘Contracts Governing the Use of Websites’ (2016) Singapore Journal of Legal Studies
  • ‘Subject to Review? Consideration, Liquidated Damages and the Penalty Jurisdiction’ (2014) Working Paper, SMU Research Collection
  • ‘Terms of Use: Reflections on a Theme’ (2014) Working Paper, SMU Research Collection
  • ‘Certainty at Last? A “new” framework for electronic contracting in Singapore’ (2013) Journal of International Commercial Law and Technology
  • ‘Evaluating the Impact of the UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts on Domestic Contract Law – The Singapore Example’ (2012) Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs
  • ‘Mistaken Identity, Identity Theft and Problems of Remote Authentication in E-commerce’ (2012) Computer Security & Law Review
  • ‘From Claytablets to AJAX: Replicating Writing and Documents in Internet Transactions’ (2012) Journal of Internet Law
  • ‘The Unimportance of Being Electronic – or Popular Misconceptions About “Internet Contracting”’ (2011) International Journal of Law and Information Technology
  • ‘Some Technological Implications for Ascertaining the Contents of Contracts in Web-based Transactions’ (2011) Computer Security & Law Review
  • ‘’Updating’ the Electronic Transactions Act? — Australia’s Accession to the UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts 2005’ (2010) Journal of Contract Law
  • ‘The Effectiveness of Acceptances Communicated by Electronic Means, or – Does the Postal Acceptance Rule Apply to Email?’ (2009) Journal of Contract Law

Articles (co-authored)

Book Chapters (single authored)

  • ‘Contracts Formed Online and “by” Computers’ – chapter in ‘Contract Formation – Law and Practice’ by M Furmston, G Tolhurst, 3nd Ed (Oxford University Press 2023) (in production)
  • ‘AI in Negotiating and Entering into Contracts’ – chapter in ‘The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence,’ edited by Larry A. diMatteo, Michael Cannarsa, Cristina Poncibo (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
  • ‘Engineering Consent: Using Technology to Create Informed Consumers’ – chapter in “Research Handbook Contract Design” edited by Helena Happio and Marcelo Corrales (Edward Elgar, 2022)
  • ‘AI as a Legal Entity” – chapter in “Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property,” edited by Kung-Chung Liu, Jyh-An Lee and Reto Hilti, (Oxford University Press 2021)
  • ‘The Resilience of Contract Law in Light of Technological Change’ – chapter in ‘The Future of the Law of Contract Law,’ edited by M Furmston, (Routledge, 2020)
  • ‘Blockchains as Transacting Platforms?’ – chapter in ‘Cambridge Handbook of Smart Contracts, Blockchain Technology and Digital Platforms,’ edited by Larry A. diMatteo, Michael Cannarsa, Cristina Poncibo (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
  • ‘Legal and Regulatory Challenges to Facilitating E-Commerce in the ASEAN’ – chapter in ‘ASEAN Law in the New Regional Economic Order: Global Trends and Shifting Paradigms,’ edited by Bryan Mercurio and Pasha Hsieh (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
  • ‘Contract Formation’ – sections in chapter in ‘The Law of Contract (Butterworths Common Law Series)’ 5th-6th Ed (Lexis Nexis Butterworths 2017)
  • ‘Persuasive Technologies – From Loss of Privacy to Loss of Autonomy’ – in ‘Private Law in the 21st Century,’ Kit Barker, Karen Fairweather, Ross Grantham, eds. (Hart Publishing, 2017)
  • ‘Problems of Intention and Consideration in Online Transactions’ – in ‘Contract Formation – Law and Practice’ by M Furmston, G Tolhurst, 2nd Ed (Oxford University Press 2016)
  • ‘E-commerce Regulation: Necessity, Futility, Disconnect’– in First International Conference on Technologies and Law, Conference Proceedings, I. Portela, et al eds., (2013 Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Barcelos)
  • ‘Contract Formation On-Line’ – in ‘Contract Formation – Law and Practice’ by M Furmston, G Tolhurst, (Oxford University Press 2010)

SEMINARS & TALKS (selected)

  • Metaverse Law Conference, co-organized by the Centre for Legal Innovation and Digital Society (CUHK) and the Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & the Law (National University of Singapore), Hong Kong, March 2023, presentation: ‘Contract Law in the Metaverse: When Contracts are Constitutions’.
  • Digital Platform Governance: Security, Scalability and Sustainability Conference, co-organized by the Centre for Legal Innovation and Digital Society (CUHK) and Department of Law, University of Manchester, Hong Kong, January 2023, presentation: ‘The Sense and Nonsense of Smart Contracts’
  • International Conference on Cryptocurrency and Central Bank Digital Currency: Opportunities, Risks, and Regulation, CUHK, Hong Kong, December 2022, presentation: ‘The Paradox of Programmable Money: Decentralized Smart Contracts meet Centralized Digital Currencies’
  • Supreme Court of Western Australia Annual Conference, Perth, Australia, October 2022 presentation: ‘Deconstructing Smart Contracts’(via zoom)
  • Jagiellonian’s 2022 Online Seminar in Data Law, Cracow, Poland, October 2022, presentation: ‘Much Ado about Artificial Intelligence or: the automation of contract formation’ (via zoom)
  • Artificial Intelligence and Consumers Conference, co-organized by University of Galway, Universita degli Studi di Torino, University of Florida, University of Galway, September 2022, conference presentation: ‘Algorithmic Exploitation of Consumers’ (via zoom)
  • CUHK Greater Bay Area Forum, The Legal Implications of AI in the Context of Copyright and Transaction Automation, CUHK, September 2022, seminar presentation with Professor Jyh-An Lee (via zoom)
  • 2nd Workshop on European Insurance Contract Law in the Age of Digitalization, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland, June 2022, seminar presentation: ‘The Oracle Problem – A Sideways Look at Smart Contracts and their Role in InsurTech’
  • Centre for Financial Regulation and Economic Development, Chinese University of Hong Kong, May 2022, seminar presentation: ‘Smart Legal Contracts: When Contract Meets Code’ (via zoom)
  • Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, May 2022, staff seminar: ‘Smart Contracts: Revisited’ (via zoom)
  • Centre for Financial Regulation and Economic Development, Chinese University of Hong Kong, April, 2022, seminar presentation: ‘Demystifying Electronic & Digital Signatures’ (via zoom)
  • University of New South Wales Allens Hub for Technology and Innovation, Conference (Legal) Challenges for a Cyber-Physical World, Sydney, Australia, March 2022, presentation: ‘The Disappearing Computer: Consent and Disclosure in the World of Smart Objects (via zoom)
  • Machine Lawyering Conference, Chinese University of Hong Kong, February 2022, presentation: ‘Smart Contracts: Tales of Trust and Certainty’ (via zoom)
  • Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law, Obligations Lab Asia, Hong Kong, November, 2021, seminar presentation: ‘The Contractual Problems of Transaction Automation: from Vending Machines to AI’ (via zoom)
  • 4th UNCITRAL Asia Pacific Summit Judicial Summit 2021, Hong Kong Legal Week, November, 2021, presentation: ‘Artificial Intelligence and Smart Contracts: Role and Legal Implications’
  • Victorian Society for Computers and Law, Melbourne, Australia, October, 2021, presentation: ‘Artificial Intelligence in Contract Law: Much Ado about Nothing’ (via zoom)
  • Centre for Financial Regulation and Economic Development, Chinese University of Hong Kong, September, 2021, presentation ‘Smart Contracts: Technology & Regulation’ (via zoom)
  • 13th IP Conference, Innovation and Intangible Assets During and After the Pandemic, co-organized by CUHK and United-States China Intellectual Property Institute Inc, July 30-31, 2021, presentation: ‘The Legal Implications (if any) of Creative Adversarial Networks’ (via zoom)
  • Chinese University of Hong Kong and Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law Online Conference ‘Pacta Sunt Servanda in Changing Times,’ 25 June, 2021, presentation: ‘Pacta Sunt Servanda and Smart Contracts’ (via zoom)
  • AI as a Legal Entity?, Artificial Intelligence & Intellectual Property Conference, Singapore Management University, School of Law (co-organized with The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition), Singapore, 29 November 2019.
  • A Technophile’s Dream: Smart Contracts and the Automation of Trust, Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Algorithms: Regulation, Governance, Markets Conference, Kyushu University, School of Law, Fukuoka, Japan, 23 November 2019.
  • Smart Contracts and their Programming Languages, Digitalization and the Law Conference, Aalto University Business School, Helsinki, Finland, August 2019.
  • The Quest for a Digital Identity or – Solving the World’s Problems one Blockchain at a Time, Digital Citizens Conference, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia, July 2019.
  • The Resilience of Contract Law in Light of Technological Change, Technology and the Future of the Legal Profession Lecture Series, University of Queensland, TC Beirne School of Law, Public Lecture, Brisbane, Australia, July 2019.
  • Technical and Legal Perspectives on Smart Contracts: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue, University of Luxembourg, Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication, seminar, July 2019.
  • Automation, Autonomy and Agency – Defining the Challenges in Legal Research of Artificial Intelligence, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia, faculty seminar, May 2019.
  • Blockchains & Smart Contracts – Finance, Law and Beyond, Inter-Pacific Bar Association 2019 Annual Meeting, Singapore, April 2019.
  • The Legal and Technical Viability of “Smart Contracts, Tilburg Institute of Law, Society and Technology, Tilburg, The Netherlands, guest lecture for LLM Law and Technology Students, February 2019.
  • Smart Contracts and Their Identity Crisis, International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2018, San Francisco, USA, poster presentation of paper co-written with Mariya Tsyganova, Alvaro Gonzalez Rivas (National University of Singapore) (presented by Mariya Tsyganova), December 2018.
  • From Enforceability to Self-Enforcement: the Problems Surrounding Smart Contracts, 20th Attorney-General’s Conference, Natadola Bay, Fiji, December 2018.
  • Governance Problems in Blockchain-based Payment Systems, Monash Law Symposium: ‘Technological Innovation in Corporate Financing: Regulatory Challenges for the Fintech Era,’ Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, November 2018.
  • Blockchain and the Law, Future Law Innovation Programme (part of Singapore Academy of Law), Open House Event ‘What Lawyers need to know about Blockchain,’ Singapore, October 2018.
  • What is blocking blockchains? A common sense, legal evaluation, The Institute for Information Law, Blockchain & Society Policy Research, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September 2018.
  • Does AI require new laws? An (incomplete) private law perspective, Tilburg Institute of Law, Society and Technology, Tilburg, The Netherlands, September 2018.
  • Consent and Disclosure in Ubiquitous Computing Environments, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference, London, UK, September 2018.
  • Recent Developments in Information Technology Law: From Ubiquitous Computing to Artificial Intelligence, SMU Law Academy (part of the Singapore Continuing Legal Education Scheme), Singapore, August 2018.
  • From Vending Machines to Electronic Agents: Problems with A.I. In Contract Law, Intellectual Property Office Singapore (IPOS), seminar on “IP / IT Issues in Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), Singapore, July 2018.
  • Smart Contracts (Or: Much Ado About Nothing?), Journal of Contract Law 30th Anniversary Conference, Sydney, Australia, July 2018.
  • The Viability of Smart Contracts – a Legal and Technical perspective, World Blockchain Summit 2018, Singapore, keynote presentation, July 2018.
  • Smart Contracts and the Automation of Everything, Blockchain Utopia, a 2-day series of seminars and panel discussions organized by the University of Melbourne and Consumer Affairs Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, May 2018.
  • Electronic Platforms: Openness, Transparency & Privacy Issues, Impact of Technology on International Contract Law: Smart Contracts and Blockchain Technologies, Conference at Lyon Catholic University, Lyon, France, May 2018 (note: remote participation)
  • Smart Contracts from a Legal Perspective, De/Centralize 2018, Conference, Singapore, April 2018.
  • When Code Meets Law: Evaluating the Legal Significance of Distributed Ledger Technologies, SMU Law Academy, Singapore, March 2018.
  • Demystifying Smart Contracts, 2018 Computational Law and Blockchain Festival, Singapore Node (organized by Legal Hackers and Singapore Academy of Law), March 2018.
  • Pause the Blockchain Legal Revolution, SMU-ARCIALA Workshop, The Future is Crypto? An Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Blockchain Revolution, February 2018. (with Professor Kelvin Low).
  • Legal and Regulatory Challenges to Facilitating E-Commerce in the ASEAN, SMU – CEBCLA Conference, ASEAN Law in the New Economic Order, December 2017.
  • Legal Implications of Smart Contracts, ING Legal APAC Conference, Singapore, December 2017.
  • Legal Limitations and Implications of Smart Contracts, Jones Day, Blockchain Technology for Oil and Gas Seminar, Singapore, December 2017.
  • Consent and Disclosure in the Age of the Internet-of-Things, SMU, Future of Law Conference, October 2017.
  • Beyond Bitcoin: Blockchain Technologies as Transactional Platforms?, City University of Hong Kong, September 2017, staff seminar.
  • Beyond Bitcoin: The Legal Implications of Blockchain Technologies, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Accounting and Commercial Law, Wellington, New Zealand, July 2017, public lecture.
  • Software Licensing – A Practical (Legal) Introduction’, part of course in International Intellectual Property Law, University of Bocconi Campus Abroad at National University of Singapore, June 2017.
  • Nothing but the Truth: the Viability of Blockchain Technologies for the Distribution of Digital Content, 9th Conference on Innovation and Communications Law, University of Szeged, Hungary, May 2017.
  • Blockchains, Bitcoins and Smart Contracts, IP Academy Singapore, seminar on IP/IT Issues in Fintech, Singapore, March 2017.
  • The Legal Implications of Blockchain-technologies: from Bitcoins to Smart Contracts Continuing Legal Education, SMU, Singapore, March 2017. (together with Associate Professor Kelvin Low and Dr. Ernie Teo from IBM Research).
  • The Legal Challenges of Voice Interfaces: Skills and Invocation Names in Alexa, SMU – ARCIALA, Works-in-Progress Conference IP Scholars Asia, Singapore, February 2017.
  • A Sceptic’s View on Blockchains and Smart Contracts, SMU Executive Development, Future Ready Forum, Singapore, February 2017.
  • An Introduction to Smart Contracts, SMU School of Law, Faculty Research Series, February 2017.
  • Contractual Access Restrictions to Website Resources, ASK (Art, Science and Knowledge) Research Center at Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, September 2016.
  • A Contractual Perspective on Consent and Notification Requirements in Privacy Legislation, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference, Oxford, UK, September 2016.
  • Contractual Protections of Website Content, 8th Conference on Innovation and Communications Law, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland, May 2016.
  • Reformulation of the Principles Underlying Contractual Penalty Clauses: Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67, Continuing Legal Education, SMU, Singapore, March & November 2016.
  • A Contractual Perspective on Consent and Notification Requirements in Privacy Legislation, HKU-SMU-NUS Symposium, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, February 2016.
  • Thoughts on Century 21 Canada Limited Partnership v. Rogers Communications Inc., SMU – ARCIALA, Works-in-Progress Conference “IP Scholars Asia,” January, 2016.
  • Persuasive Technologies – From Loss of Privacy to Loss of Autonomy, Private Law in the 21st Century, University of Queensland, School of Law, Brisbane, Australia, December 2015.
  • New and Persistent Legal Challenges in E-commerce, Continuing Legal Education, Singapore, September 2015.
  • The Erosion of Contractual Intention in Online Consumer Transactions: Is there a legal problem yet?, Queen Mary University-SMU Research Forum, London, UK, June 2015.
  • Choice Architectures, Intentional Interference and Unintended Choices in Online Consumer Transactions, 12th ASLI Conference, Law 2.0: New Challenges in Asia, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, May 2015.
  • The Erosion of Intention in Online Consumer Transactions, Internet Law Work-in-Progress, Santa Clara University, San Jose, United States of America, March 2015.
  • Commercial Threats to the Open Web, Web Science & Data Analytics Summer School at the National University of Singapore, keynote December 2014.
  • Subject to Review? Consideration, Liquidated Damages and the Penalty Jurisdiction, Obligations VII Conference, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, July 2014.
  • Terms of Use: Reflections on a Theme, 11th ASLI Conference, Law in Asia: Balancing Tradition and Modernization, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 2014.
  • E-commerce Regulation: Necessity, Futility, Disconnect, 1st First International Conference on Technologies and Law, Porto, Portugal, November 2013.
  • The Electronic Transactions Act – General Importance and Recent Amendments, Continuing Legal Education, SMU, Singapore, November 2013.
  • Code, Contract and the Regulation of E-commerce, SMU School of Law Research Seminar, October 2013.
  • Recent developments in the Law of Liquidated Damages, Continuing Legal Education, SMU, Singapore, July 2013.
  • The Breach limitation and the Scope of the Penalty Jurisdiction, 10th ASLI Conference, Celebrating Diversity: Ten years of ASLI, National Law School, India University, Bangalore, India, May 2013.
  • What constitutes a genuine pre-estimate of loss in liquidated damages clauses, NUS-SMU-HKU Symposium, SMU, Singapore, January 2013.
  • Closed for Business: The Rise of Walled Gardens and Closed Transacting Environments in Internet Commerce, 8th International Conference on Legal, Security and Privacy Issues in IT Law, organized by the International Association of IT Lawyers, Athens, Greece, October 2012.
  • Identity Theft, Mistaken Identity and Remote Authentication in e-commerce, 7th International Conference on Legal, Security and Privacy Issues in IT Law, organized by the International Association of IT Lawyers, Nicosia, Cyprus, September 2011.
  • Evaluating the impact of the UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts, International Law Association Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, Taipei, May 2011.
  • Meeting Formal Requirements in Internet-based transactions, NUS-SMU-HKU Symposium, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, November 2010.
  • Some Technological Implications for Ascertaining the Contents of Contracts in Web-based Transactions, 6th International Conference on Legal, Security and Privacy Issues in IT Law, organized by the International Association of IT Lawyers, Barcelona, Spain, November 2010.
  • The Unimportance of Being Electronic or – What is Left to Say About Internet Contracting, SMU School of Law Research Camp, October 2010.