# kaal:claim:3808873-019

**Claim.** As code proliferates as law, the democratic legitimacy of coded legal arrangements is increasingly called into question, because private actors have assumed governance tasks traditionally belonging to democratically elected sovereign states and may circumvent democratically legitimized governments.

**Type.** mechanism  **Support.** argued

**Holds when.**

- private coded legal arrangements and smart contracts governing online interaction

**Source quote.**

> Given the proliferation of code as law, the democratic legitimacy of coded legal arrangements are increasingly called into question. Through code, private actors have created governance tasks that were traditionally the responsibility of democratically elected sovereign states and state actors.

**From.** Wulf A. Kaal, *Decentralization Neutralizers* (2021), VI. Democratic Legitimacy of Code, page 15

**Cite as.** Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization Neutralizers (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3808873

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `f11493915e6b8c266d421510b5546816e33defb5650aac9d09b20d78549da727` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Kaal%20-%202021%20-%20Decentralization%20Neutralizers.pdf

**Failure mode.** Democratic Legitimacy Deficit of Code  (family: governance-participation-collapse)

**Topics.** governance-design, smart-contracts

**Keywords.** code-as-law, democratic-legitimacy, private-governance, smart-contracts

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