Legal Classification of Coded Properties and the Exclusion of Real Estate Ownership in the 2019 Hague Convention

Abstract

       This study addresses a fundamental and underexplored gap in private international law: Does the real estate exception stipulated in Article 6 of the 2019 Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters extend to provisions relating to digital rights associated with tokenized real estate? The research problem centers on the essential classificatory ambiguity that arises when blockchain-based tokens, representing fractional ownership shares, usufruct rights, or other property-related rights, become the subject of cross-border litigation. The study aims to define the normative scope of the real estate exception; analyze the legal nature of tokenized real estate rights within the framework of comparative private law; and propose interpretative criteria to resolve the classification dilemma. The study employs a jurisprudential and comparative methodology, drawing on the preparatory work for the Convention, national jurisprudence in England, Singapore, and Switzerland, and emerging academic discourse. The key findings reveal that current interpretive frameworks are ill-equipped to accommodate encoded rights, that the principle of location law faces structural deficiencies in decentralized record environments, and that Iraqi property law—despite its gradual modernization—lacks the necessary regulatory framework to effectively address blockchain-based property rights. Therefore, legislative reform at both the international and national levels is crucial .