Digital tokenisation is increasingly used to represent, transfer, evidence or facilitate rights, claims, assets and other legal relationships in cross-border transactions and activities. These transactions may take palce within centralised, decentralised, distributed, or hybrid digital environments and may involve issuers, users, custodians, intermediaries, platform operators, and other participants located in different jurisdictions.
These features may create uncertainty concerning the courts that have jurisdiction, the applicable law, the recognition and enforcement of decisions, and the need for international judicial or administrative cooperation. Traditional jurisdictional grounds or connecting factors based on physical location may not operate readily where a digital token, the environment in which it is recorded, the participants in the transaction, and any linked rights, obilgations, claims or assets are connected with different jurisdictions.
Exploratory Study
In March 2024, the Council on General Affairs and Policy of the HCCH (CGAP) mandated the Permanent Bureau (PB), in partnership with relevant subject-matter experts and Observers, to study the private international law (PIL) issues relating to digital tokens. In establishing the mandate, CGAP emphasised the importance of avoiding fragmentation among instruments developed by different international organisations, including the UNIDROIT Principles on Digital Assets and Private Law.
The exploratory study included comparative mapping of relevant international and regional instruments, initiatives and legal approaches; written consultations with experts and Observers; and two working meetings. The study examined representative use cases and identified PIL questions that could warrant further examination. At the conclusion of the exploratory stage, the participating experts unanimously recommended that the work continue through an Experts’ Group.
Experts’ Group
In March 2025, CGAP adopted Conclusion and Decision (C&D) No 15, which “mandated the establishment of an EG to study the PIL issues raised by digital tokens, subject to available resources”.
The EG held its first and second meetings in 2025. Building on the findings of the exploratory phase, the Experts’ Group considered the scope of the Project, relevant terminology and possible methods for analysing the identified PIL questions. The Group organised its work into two distinct but related workstreams:
- electronic transferable records; and
- transactions and relationships involving digital tokens and digitally mediated environments.
In March 2026, CGAP welcomed the progress made by the EG and approved the continuation of its work. CGAP invited the PB to convene two further EG meetings, as well as intersessional work, prior to CGAP 2027. Under this mandate, the Group was asked to develop draft provisions for a PIL framework relating to electronic transferable records, aligned with the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records, and to continue identifying more specific PIL issues raised by digital tokens. At its third and fourth meetings in 2026, the Group further developed both workstreams and considered the desirability, feasibility and appropriate institutional arrangements for future work.
Electronic Transferable Records (ETRs)
The electronic transferable records workstream has examined the development of a PIL framework that would complement the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records by addressing PIL questions that the Model Law does not resolve.
The work is guided by the principle of functional equivalence: transition from a paper-based transferable document or instrument to its electronic equivalent should not, solely because of the change in medium, produce a different PIL outcome. The proposed framework is intended to operate across jurisdictions with different approaches to electronic transferable records while avoiding unnecessary distinctions between paper and electronic instruments.
The Experts’ Group reached consensus that developing a PIL instrument concerning electronic transferable records is desirable and feasible. It recommended that CGAP establish a Working Group to develop such an instrument, using the Group’s draft provisions and list of outstanding issues as a basis for future work. The Group identified work towards a binding instrument as the most desirable outcome, without prejudging the resolution of outstanding substantive questions.
Transactions and Relationships in Digitally Mediated Environments
The second workstream has evolved from a primary focus on digital tokens as objects to an examination of the transactions and legal relationships that arise within digitally mediated environments. The Experts’ Group has therefore proposed that the continuing workstream be designated “Transactions and Relationships in Digitally Mediated Environments.”
The workstream focuses on non-payment PIL questions arising specifically from the use of digitally mediated environments. These include questions concerning jurisdiction, applicable law, proprietary and third-party effects, custody, transfers, insolvency, creditor claims, governance arrangements, cross-border remedies and international cooperation. It also examines the relationship between tokens, the environments in which they are recorded and any external or linked rights, assets or entitlements.
The same token, wallet, platform or infrastructure may perform several functions and may generate both payment and non-payment questions. The respective HCCH workstreams are therefore delineated by the legal issue and function concerned, rather than by allocating an entire instrument or platform to one project. Questions arising from the payment function, including the discharge of monetary obligations, fall within the proposed work on digital payments. Other transactional, proprietary, custody-related and governance questions may remain relevant to this Project.
The Experts’ Group agreed that continuing this work is desirable. Recognising that its scope, priorities and possible approaches require further refinement before consideration of progression to a Working Group, the Group recommended that CGAP authorise the continuation of the existing Experts’ Group under the revised designation. The continuing work would assess the applicability and adequacy of existing PIL frameworks and develop and evaluate possible approaches where appropriate. This recommendation does not prejudge whether new rules are required or the form of any eventual outcome.
The Project is being conducted within the HCCH’s mandate on private international law and in coordination with other relevant HCCH work, particularly the proposed work on cross-border digital payments, as well as with relevant international initiatives. This coordination seeks to promote coherence, avoid unnecessary duplication and delineate the respective workstreams by reference to the legal questions and functions concerned.
Relevant international instruments and initiatives will be taken into account where appropriate. Such coordination does not prejudge the scope, approaches, solutions or form of any future HCCH work, which remain to be considered independently through the HCCH’s established processes.
- Prel. Doc. No 5A of November 2026 (forthcoming)
- Prel. Doc. No 5B of November 2026 (forthcoming)
- Final Report of the Experts’ Group on Digital Tokens – ETR Workstream
- Aide-mémoire of the fourth meeting prepared by the Chair
- Aide-mémoire of the third meeting prepared by the Chair
- Prel. Doc. No 5 of January 2026 - Experts’ Group on Digital Tokens: Reports of the first and second meetings
- Prel. Doc. No 4 of November 2024 - Report on Exploratory Work: Digital Tokens Project
- Prel. Doc. No 5B REV of March 2024 - Proposal for a Normative Project: Private International Law Issues Relating to Digital Tokens