About Code on Trial
Code on Trial is a practical, dispute-led newsletter about what happens when emerging technology meets legal reality.
AI, crypto, tokenised assets and legal technology are moving quickly. The law moves more slowly, through contracts, evidence, procedure, remedies and enforcement. This publication tracks the point where those worlds collide: when technical systems create legal consequences and when courts, tribunals and regulators have to decide who is responsible, on what evidence and with what remedy.
If you are less interested in hype than in what actually gets pleaded, argued, proved and awarded, you are in the right place.
Why subscribe
Subscribers receive clear, case-driven analysis of the legal disputes that matter in AI, crypto and digital systems.
That includes:
real cases and enforcement actions,
what courts or tribunals actually decided,
why the result matters,
and the practical implications for litigation strategy, governance, compliance, drafting and risk allocation.
I also publish shorter issue-spotters between longer briefing notes, so readers can track developments without wading through noise.
What Code on Trial covers
The publication focuses on four connected areas.
AI and disputes
Copyright and training-data claims, output liability, product and negligence theories, data scraping, confidentiality, trade secrets, expert evidence and disputes arising from AI deployment and governance.
Crypto and digital assets
Asset tracing, freezing orders, exchanges and custodians, insolvency-related disputes, fraud and misrepresentation claims, tokenisation structures and cross-border enforcement and jurisdiction issues.
Legal tech and the justice system
The effect of technology on how disputes are run, managed and resolved, including procedural consequences, automation, platformisation and access-to-justice questions.
Procedure, evidence and remedies
Because many technology disputes are won or lost here, often well before trial.
Who it is for
Code on Trial is written for lawyers, in-house counsel, compliance and risk teams, founders, operators, investors, insurers, litigation funders, arbitrators, mediators and expert witnesses who need a practical understanding of how emerging technology is being tested in real disputes.
You do not need to be a technologist to follow it. Where technical detail matters, I translate it into the legal questions that decide exposure, liability and outcome.
About the author
I’m Nick Rowles-Davies. My work has long focused on complex disputes, litigation finance and the market infrastructure around legal risk. I have spent much of my career analysing how disputes are prosecuted, defended, financed, settled and enforced across borders and how incentives, information asymmetry and procedural leverage shape outcomes.
Code on Trial applies that lens to AI, crypto and legal technology. It is not abstract “future of law” commentary. It is a running record of what happens when real systems, real failures and real money meet real legal process.
Editorial approach
This newsletter is pro-clarity and pro-evidence.
I aim to separate what is known from what is assumed, distinguish holdings from headlines, and treat both the law and the underlying technology seriously. Where relevant, I link to primary materials and flag where reporting depends on secondary sources. Where uncertainty remains, I say so.
A note
The views expressed are my own. This publication is for general information only and does not constitute legal, financial, investment or other professional advice.
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