Problems of choice of law applicable to smart contracts in private international law

There has been a gradual shift away from the written form of cross-border transactions in international trade. However, the exchange of electronic messages as a way of expressing the agreed will of the parties when concluding trade agreements does not fully resolve the issue of the use of information technologies in international private law relations, since other technological innovations appear, the legal regulation of which is at a low level. Smart contracts are a promising area of research into the problems of international private law; they are based on blockchain technology, which is a decentralized distributed ledger system consisting of a chain of computers connected to one server. Blockchain technology gives the participants of smart contracts a unique opportunity to exchange property values without intermediaries such as banks, notaries, agents, guarantors, etc. In foreign countries, there is a process of progressive formation of the legislative framework in the field of regulation of smart contracts. Special commissions are being created, consisting of leading programmers and lawyers, to resolve issues of information technology compatibility with existing legal regulations. Basically, the development of new legal structures for smart contracts is driven by the need to protect the interests of the largest investors in the field of cryptocurrency turnover. Unfortunately, in some countries at the moment there is no regulation of smart contracts. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, applied in these legal relations, does not give the buyer the opportunity to trace the main characteristics of the purchased goods. The smart contract, in turn, will provide access to the supplied goods in real time. If the requirements for the quality of the goods are violated, a computer program connected to the blockchain platform automatically liquidates the buyer's electronic account. However, all these technological capabilities must have a solid legal basis, which is only at the stage of formation. First of all, it is necessary to be guided by the rules in force on Internet platforms for concluding smart contracts; it is important to develop unified rules for conducting trade by concluding smart contracts between participants in foreign economic activity. The main problem that the parties to a cross-border transaction face is the lack of trust in the counter-agent. The blockchain technology, on the basis of which smart contracts function, will eliminate negative moments in the course of goods delivery.