Foundations of Decentralized Organizations

Kevin Werbach is the Liem Sioe Liong/First Pacific Company Professor and Chair of the Department of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Wharton Blockchain and Digital Asset Project. He has served on the Obama administration's presidential transition team, founded the Supernova Group (a technology conference and consulting firm), led internet policy at the Federal Communications Commission, and created a massive open online course with nearly 500,000 enrollments. His books include After the Digital Tornado: Networks, Architecture, Humanity (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust (MIT Press, 2018).Eva Micheler is Professor of Law at the London School of Economics Law School. She studied law at the University of Vienna and the University of Oxford before joining LSE in 2001. She also serves on the management committee of the Systemic Risk Centre at LSE. Professor Micheler was a TMR Fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. She has advised the UK Government, the European Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority. Her books include Company Law: A Real Entity Theory (Oxford University Press, 2021) and Property in Securities (Cambridge University Press, 2007).Bianca Kremer is Senior Fellow at the Wharton Blockchain and Digital Asset Project (BDAP) at the Wharton School, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Zug Institute for Blockchain Research at the University of Lucerne, and Legal Counsel at MME Legal

• Introduction Part I - DAOs as an Innovation in Corporate Form 1: Nina Reiser: DAO Legal Forms Around the World 2: Shawn Bayern: Are Bespoke DAO Forms Needed in Organizational Law? 3: Michael Schillig: DAOs and the History of Corporate Law Part II - DAO Governance 4: Jill E. Fisch: DAOs and Corporate Governance 5: Morshed Mannan and Primavera de Filippi: The Fiduciary Duties of Network Participants of Blockchain Systems 6: Daniela Gandorfer and Eva Micheler: DAOs: The Theory of the Firm and Ostromian Perspectives 7: Darcy W.E. Allen, Chris Berg, Aaron M. Lane, Jason Potts: DAOs are Adaptive Governance Engines Part III - Legal Considerations 8: Kara Bruce, Christopher K. Odinet, and Andrea Tosato: DAOs in Financial Distress 9: Florence Guillaume: Choice of Court Agreements in Disputes Involving DAOs 10: Bianca Kremer: Code, Community, and Conflict: DAO Disputes 11: Nizan Geslevich Packin and Anat Alon-Beck: DAOs for Collective Investment: An Emerging Paradigm 12: Iris H-Y Chiu: Regulating Decentralized Finance: How Financial Regulation Sheds Light on Governing DAOs Part IV - The Future of DAOs 13: Jason Grant Allen and Peter Hunn: The Law of Digital Organizations: A Prospective 14: Edmund Schuster and Kelvin F.K. Low: What Do DAOs Really Contribute? 15: Kevin Werbach: Out of Control: DAOs, AI and the Question of Autonomy