# From Smart Contracts to Courts with not so Smart Judges

DevFeed: [From Smart Contracts to Courts with not so Smart Judges](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/from-smart-contracts-to-courts-with-not-so-smart-judges-16749.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.ethereum.org/en/2016/02/17/smart-contracts-courts-not-smart-judges>)

Author: Christian Reitwiessner

Published: 2016-02-17T15:42:29Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Ethereum Foundation Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/ethereum-foundation-blog.md>)

Topics: [Ethereum](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ethereum.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/systems.md>), [Protocol (disambiguation)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/protocol.md>)

Tags: [article](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/article.md>), [ethereum](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ethereum.md>), [platform](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/platform.md>), [proof-of-work](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/proof-of-work.md>), [research-development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/research-development.md>), [smart-contract](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/smart-contract.md>), [transactions](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/transactions.md>)

## AI overview

This article presents Ethereum smart contracts as courts with computationally restricted judges assisted by outside actors acting as lawyers. It explains how contracts can obtain and verify external information, and how this model can support complex computations despite gas limits.

## Source excerpt

Ethereum is often described as a platform for self-enforcing smart contracts. While this is certainly true, this article argues that, especially when more complex systems are involved, it is rather a court with smart lawyers and a judge that is not so smart, or more formally, a judge with restricted...