UNCITRAL's 2026 Digital Assets Colloquium and the Case for Dalhuisen's Volume 4
From 10 to 13 February 2026, UNCITRAL convened a four-day Colloquium at United Nations Headquarters in New York on "Harmonizing law in the age of digital trade and finance." The agenda went straight to questions that transnational commercial lawyers have been circling for years: how should tokenized assets, electronic documents of title and electronic negotiable instruments be classified as collateral; how is third-party effectiveness achieved when there is no paper document to possess; and how do conflict-of-law rules apply when the asset itself exists only on a distributed ledger. These are not abstract questions — they sit at the center of how international trade and finance will actually be secured over the next decade.
Volume 4 of Jan H. Dalhuisen's monumental Transnational and Comparative Commercial, Financial and Trade Law, now in its 9th edition, is where this debate has been mapped out in depth for years before UNCITRAL's own colloquium caught up. Dalhuisen's treatment of movable and intangible property — negotiable documents of title, the dematerialisation of negotiable instruments, investment securities and their transnational custodial and settlement systems — gives readers the comparative common law and civil law grounding needed to actually follow where UNCITRAL, UNIDROIT and national regulators are heading on digital assets and blockchain-based collateral.
Please note: this is a Print On Demand title. The publisher prints a copy to fulfil each order; delivery can take 1 to 3 weeks (1 to 2 weeks for looseleaf titles).
For commercial and financial law practitioners, academics and law libraries following the harmonisation of digital trade and finance law at the international level, this volume is indispensable background reading.
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Q&A
What does this volume cover? Transnational movable and intangible property law, including negotiable documents of title, negotiable instruments and investment securities.
How does it relate to current UNCITRAL work on digital assets? It provides the comparative common law/civil law foundations — on documents of title, negotiable instruments and dematerialisation — that underpin ongoing UNCITRAL and UNIDROIT harmonisation work on tokenized assets and digital collateral.
Is this a Print On Demand title? Yes. The publisher prints a copy to fulfil each order; delivery can take 1 to 3 weeks (1 to 2 weeks for looseleaf titles).
Can this volume be read independently of the other 5 volumes? Yes, each volume in the 6-volume set can be used independently or read together for a comprehensive overview.
Where can I buy Dalhuisen Volume 4: Transnational Movable Property Law? Directly from CLNZ Books at clnzbooks.com. Price includes worldwide courier shipping, and payment is accepted by credit card or PayPal.